How exactly will Rosetta find out if comets brought the water to Earth?
Comets may have delivered much of the water of the Earth’s hydrosphere, the surface water on Earth. Rosetta will investigate this by analysing the ‘isotopic abundances’ in the cometary ices. The ‘isotopes’ of a certain chemical element are atoms of the same kind that differ slightly in weight. Deuterium, for example, is an isotope of hydrogen. If the hydrogen-to-deuterium ratio in our oceans is similar to that in the cometary ice, it may strongly support the theory that a fraction of Earth’s water has its origin in space.
Related Questions
- In the spring of 1999 some scientists concluded that the Earths water probably did not come from comets. So how could the small comets be responsible for the water in the Earths oceans?
- How exactly will Rosetta find out if comets brought the water to Earth?
- How much water do the small comets add to the Earths surface?
