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RandomFactor writes:

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

Original Submission