Skip to main content
Tags: solar system | water | older | than | sun

Solar System's Water Older Than Sun, Study Finds

Solar System's Water Older Than Sun, Study Finds
Spring water overflowing from a stone. (dreamstime, file)

By    |   Friday, 26 September 2014 03:19 PM EDT

A study published Thursday shows some water in our solar system is older than the sun. The water is found in in Earth's oceans, in meteorites, and in frozen lunar craters.

Scientists have long debated whether the solar system’s water came from ice ionized during the formation of the solar system, or if it predated the solar system and originated in the cold interstellar cloud of gas from which the sun itself was formed, Reuters said.

The study was published in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

“It's remarkable that these ices survived the entire process of stellar birth,” lead researcher Lauren Cleeves, told Reuters.

Cleeves, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, had been studying how radioactivity, galactic cosmic rays and other high-energy phenomena impact planet-forming disks of matter that circle young stars.

The “aha” moment, she said, was realizing that conditions in the early solar system weren’t right for synthesizing new water molecules.

“Without any new water creation, the only place these ices could have come from was the chemically rich interstellar gas out of which the solar system formed,” she said.

To prove the point, she and colleagues ran computer models comparing ratios of hydrogen with its heavier isotope, deuterium, which has been enriching the solar system’s water over time.

To reach the ratios found in meteorite samples, as well as in Earth's ocean water and comets, at least some of the water would have had to be formed before the sun’s birth, the scientists concluded.

The process likely would be the same for other solar systems as well, suggesting conditions hospitable for life could exist beyond Earth.

Also this week, a second paper in Science notes the discovery of a branched carbon-containing molecule involved in the creation of stars.

The molecule, known as iso-propyl cyanide (i-C3H7CN), was discovered in a giant gas cloud called Sagittarius B2, the most massive star-forming region in the Milky Way, by Chile’s ALMA observatory.

"Understanding the production of organic material at the early stages of star formation is critical to piecing together the gradual progression from simple molecules to potentially life-bearing chemistry," lead researcher Arnaud Belloche, with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, said in a statement.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


TheWire
A study published Thursday shows some water in our solar system is older than the sun. The water is found in in Earth's oceans, in meteorites, and in frozen lunar craters.
solar system, water, older, than, sun
371
2014-19-26
Friday, 26 September 2014 03:19 PM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 
TOP

Interest-Based Advertising | Do not sell or share my personal information

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Download the Newsmax App
NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved