The water, Solar System older than the Sun itself – The Day (Argentina)

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Some of the water existing in the solar system predates the formation of the Sun, according to a study published today in the journal Science that opens also the possibility that there is life on exoplanets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.

For years, researchers have tried to determine if the water is in the Solar System comes from the molecular nebula surrounding the Sun, the born planets, or if it was created before a cold gas cloud formed the “sun king”.

The research, led by Lauren Cleeves, University of Michigan (USA), has re-created a computer model that analyzes the chemical conditions between the water molecules in the solar system formed 4,600 million ago years.

In particular, experts have focused on the study deuterium, a stable isotope of hydrogen present in water, meteorites and comets.

The team determined that the chemical processes within protoplanetary disks of early Solar System can not be responsible for deuterium rates currently found in the water found in comets, moons and oceans of that system.

So, a significant portion of the water in the solar system could not be formed after the Sun and, therefore, an amount of interstellar ice survived the creation of such a system.

This means that if other planetary systems in the galaxy formed in the same way as ours, these systems have had access to the same water they agreed the solar system, say the researchers.

“The widespread availability of water during the planet formation process opens a promising perspective on the prevalence of life in the galaxy,” write the researchers, who point out that, so far, the Kepler satellite NASA has identified 1,000 confirmed extrasolar planets.

“This is an important step in our quest to learn if life exists on other planets,” said Tim Harries, Department of Physics and Astronomy at the British University of Exeter and a member of the research team.

With the identification of the heritage of water on Earth, “we will see that the way in which our solar system formed has not been unique, and exoplanets arise in environments with water,” said Harries.

In this scenario, the expert added Exeter

“the possibility that some exoplanets could harbor the right conditions and water resources, to evolve life arises”