Scientists Finally Find the Origin of Water After Many Years, Linked to an Explosion
- Researchers from the University of Portsmouth have traced the origins of water to supernova explosions that occurred 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang
- Their findings suggest that the ingredients for life on Earth were in place billions of years earlier than previously thought
- This discovery offers insights into how water, a key component of life, arrived on habitable planets like Earth
Researchers have announced that they have found the origins of water in the earliest moments of the universe.
Water, which makes up 70 per cent of our planet's surface, first formed in the debris of supernova explosions 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang, according to scientists from the University of Portsmouth.
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According to Nature, these findings suggest that the ingredients for life on Earth were in place billions of years earlier than previously thought.
Formation of water through supernovae
Using computer simulations, the researchers demonstrated that water would have formed when the very first stars in the universe died and collapsed into supernovae.
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As the oxygen produced by these blasts cooled and mixed with the surrounding hydrogen, water was able to form in the clumps of material left behind.
These dense, dusty cores are also the most likely origins of the material that would go on to form the first planets.
Key findings and implications
In their paper, Dr Daniel Whalen and his co-authors wrote: "Besides revealing that a primary ingredient for life was already in place in the Universe 100–200 Myr after the Big Bang, our simulations show that water was probably a key constituent of the first galaxies."
The researchers modelled the aftermath of two supernova explosions—one from a star 13 times the mass of the Sun and the other from a star 200 times the mass of the Sun. The simulations showed that the first supernova produced 0.051 solar masses of oxygen, while the second produced 55 solar masses of oxygen.
Significance for habitable planets
If the water formed in these explosions could survive the violent galaxy formation process, it could have been one of the key components of the first galaxies.
This finding is particularly significant as it could explain how water arrived on habitable planets such as Earth.
The dense 'molecular cloud cores' in which water formed are likely origins of protoplanetary disks, swirling clouds of dust that go on to form planets and low-mass stars like our sun.
In some of these disks, water levels could be almost as high as they are anywhere else in the universe today.
NASA predicts asteroid to drop in 7 years
Legit.ng earlier reported that A newly discovered asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, has a 1-in-83 chance of striking Earth in December 2032.
The asteroid, estimated to be 196 feet (60 meters) wide, is currently 27 million miles away. Experts have looked at potential impact locations, raising concerns about the possible devastating consequences.
According to Space and Wired, David Rankin, an engineer with NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey Project, mapped out a 'risk corridor' for the asteroid's potential impact.
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