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Space

Earth may have had its water delivered by a vast cloud of vapour

Rather than getting its water from impacts, our planet may have drawn in water vapour after the sun boiled it off early icy asteroids

By Alex Wilkins

11 December 2024

Artist's impression of a rocky and water-rich asteroid being torn apart by gravity

The sun may have created a vast mass of water gas by heating asteroids

ESA/Hubble Copyright: NASA, ESA, M.A. Garlick (space-art.co.uk), University of Warwick, and University of Cambridge.

A vast cloud of vapour expelled from boiled asteroids may have lingered in the solar system for millions of years before raining down on Earth, according to a new idea for how our planet got its water.

The origin of Earth’s water has long puzzled scientists. It is hard to argue that our planet has always had the water we see today, because the young sun would have been so…

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