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from the technically,-wasn't-Theia-a-meteorite? dept.
Planetologists at the University of Münster in Germany have determined when the Earth got its water. The inner solar system where the Earth formed is relatively dry, so Earth shouldn't have water. It turns out that water was delivered by the impact that caused the formation of the Moon.
Planetologists at the University of Münster (Germany) have now been able to show, for the first time, that water came to Earth with the formation of the Moon some 4.4 billion years ago. The Moon was formed when Earth was hit by a body about the size of Mars, also called Theia. Until now, scientists had assumed that Theia originated in the inner solar system near the Earth. However, researchers from Münster can now show that Theia comes from the outer solar system, and it delivered large quantities of water to Earth. The results are published in the current issue of Nature Astronomy.
This is in contrast to earlier theories of how and when Earth got its water which attribute it to being there at formation or delivered later by meteorites.
Journal Reference
Gerrit Budde, Christoph Burkhardt, Thorsten Kleine. Molybdenum isotopic evidence for the late accretion of outer Solar System material to Earth. Nature Astronomy, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41550-019-0779-y
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 22 2019, @03:13PM (5 children)
True, however for a Theia sized object, all that would mean is that we would see the end coming - we might be able to deflect an asteroid, even a really large one if we had enough warning. But nothing in our arsenal would make the slightest bit of difference to a rogue planet far larger than the moon.
And there may be thousands of Theia-sized object orbiting in the Oort cloud, we just don't know. The furthest thing we've ever spotted it "Farout", at 120 AU, while the Oort cloud likely extends a thousand times that far. And if something gets disrupted enough to plunge into the inner system, it'll be going so fast when we finally spot it that we won't have much time to do anything about it, even if we have the power to try.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 22 2019, @03:23PM
Not to worry. Someone in Hollywood happened to be experimenting with just the tools for the job, when mankind learned of the danger. Afterward, there will be a movie, "Back to the Oort Cloud" or some such. TIP: the Houston Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Seahawks in 2117.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @04:21PM
Time to build a giant Dyson wall, and make the Thulites pay for it.
(Score: 1) by nivieru on Wednesday May 22 2019, @05:12PM (1 child)
We'll just hide inside the hollow earth, it worked for the lizard people the last time around
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @06:33PM
No, they came up and ran for office.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 22 2019, @09:35PM
Which is very true, and one of the reasons we ought to be attempting to expand into our solar system, and beyond. (I know that will be difficult, but we have done difficult before).