Some of the water on Earth could come from the solar wind: the charged particles emitted by our star (mostly hydrogen ions) would have led to the formation of water on the dust grains of silicate-rich asteroids that would then have fallen to Earth in the early days. of the Solar System. This is suggested by the analysis carried out atom by atom on samples of the asteroid Itokawa, collected by the Japanese probe Hayabusa and brought back to Earth in 2010. The study, which could have important implications for the supply of water for future space missions, is published in Nature Astronomy by an international team led by Luke Daly of the University of Glasgow.
There are several theories formulated over the years about the origin of water on our planet: one of these hypothesizes that it was brought by carbonaceous asteroids (defined as type C), but the isotopes that make up their chemical ‘signature’ do not perfectly match with those of the terrestrial water. “It means there’s at least one other source missing,” says Phillip Bland, director of the Space Science and Technology Center (Sstc) at Curtin University in Australia.
“Our research suggests that the solar wind created water on the surface of small specks of dust, and this water made up of lighter isotopes probably provided the rest of the water on Earth.” The researchers came to this conclusion thanks to the analysis conducted with a state-of-the-art tomography system that made it possible to examine in unprecedented detail the samples of the first 50 millionths of a millimeter (nanometers) of the surface of Itokawa, a stony asteroid rich in silicates (type S). “We discovered which contained a quantity of water that, in proportion, could amount to about 20 liters per cubic meter of rock ”, explains Bland.
“Our research shows that the same phenomenon that created water on Itokawa could also occur on other celestial bodies without an atmosphere and this – concludes Daly – means that astronauts may be able to extract water from surface dust, even on the Moon”.
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Source From: Ansa
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