Projectile cannon experiments show how asteroids can deliver water
Experiments using a high-powered projectile cannon show how impacts by water-rich asteroids can deliver surprising amounts of water to planetary bodies. The research, by scientists from Brown University, could shed light on how water got to the early Earth and help account for some trace water detections on the Moon and elsewhere.
"The origin and transportation of water and volatiles is one of the big questions in planetary science," said Terik Daly, a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University who led the research while completing his Ph.D. at Brown. "These experiments reveal a mechanism by which asteroids could deliver water to moons, planets and other asteroids. It's a process that started while the solar system was forming and continues to operate today."
The research is published in Science Advances [open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar2632] [DX].
Also at Popular Mechanics and BGR.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @12:28PM
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/21/1444239 [soylentnews.org]
If your planet starts out too close to the star, it will apparently have less water and need to get it from somewhere else.
Earth's mass is just 0.05% water. By contrast many outer solar system moons (like Titan [wikipedia.org]) and Kuiper belt objects can hit 50%.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]