Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2014 15:32:26 GMT -6
Anyone who has watched current prime time TV or keeps up on general news knows about forensic evidence in criminal cases. A plastic has a color which is common, but that special blend is unique, making a piece of plastic like a fingerprint of sorts. In other examples, a liquid that is nothing special itself (water, alcohol, solvents) contains a mixture which comes in just such a way as to make it unique. It makes shows and CSI stories interesting, even if the real science is tedious and boring.
It seems water in the Universe may come to be similar in having a signature that is unique for its origin. More to the point for Earth, it may rule out comets or other water bearing bodies from having had direct interaction with our immediate area in the past.
Here is the basic science of it....
Source
The article has a focus a bit different from the aspect I'm looking at, and both are really interesting IMO. I hadn't realized or considered that water wouldn't be "water" to our sense of knowing it, yet...still fundamentally BE water elsewhere.
'Water Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink' could take on whole new meaning in distant worlds when we eventually achieve the means to travel there!
(I would note though, the story points to one which DOES match ours, so it isn't just a random mixup to have no consistency either, eh?)
It seems water in the Universe may come to be similar in having a signature that is unique for its origin. More to the point for Earth, it may rule out comets or other water bearing bodies from having had direct interaction with our immediate area in the past.
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has found the water vapour from its target comet to be significantly different to that found on Earth. The discovery fuels the debate on the origin of our planet’s oceans.
Here is the basic science of it....
Previous measurements of the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio in other comets have shown a wide range of values. Of the 11 comets for which measurements have been made, it is only the Jupiter-family Comet 103P/Hartley 2 that was found to match the composition of Earth’s water, in observations made by ESA’s Herschel mission in 2011.
By contrast, meteorites originally hailing from asteroids in the Asteroid Belt also match the composition of Earth’s water. Thus, despite the fact that asteroids have a much lower overall water content, impacts by a large number of them could still have resulted in Earth’s oceans.
By contrast, meteorites originally hailing from asteroids in the Asteroid Belt also match the composition of Earth’s water. Thus, despite the fact that asteroids have a much lower overall water content, impacts by a large number of them could still have resulted in Earth’s oceans.
The article has a focus a bit different from the aspect I'm looking at, and both are really interesting IMO. I hadn't realized or considered that water wouldn't be "water" to our sense of knowing it, yet...still fundamentally BE water elsewhere.
'Water Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink' could take on whole new meaning in distant worlds when we eventually achieve the means to travel there!
(I would note though, the story points to one which DOES match ours, so it isn't just a random mixup to have no consistency either, eh?)
