Brought to you by Clyde
OCEAN BEARER:
The oceans on Earth and
other rocky planets likely arrived via impacting asteroids and comets.
Now, astronomers have spotted the remains of a watery asteroid around a
distant star that could represent just such an ocean bearer.
Image: Mark A. Garlick, space-art.co.uk, University of Warwick and University of Cambridge
8 comments:
I find the article “Pulverized Asteroid around Distant Star Was Full of Water” very interesting. There were three things that I found most intriguing. The first is that the Earth's water could have been carried here from somewhere out in space. In fact, a wet asteroid hitting the Earth could have been the source of our oceans. If our water did come from somewhere else in the the universe, that water could also have carried the first forms of life to Earth. The second item I found fascinating in the article is that if some asteroids in our solar system have large amounts of water that we might be able to tap as we explore the solar system. Water is very heavy, at approximately 8.33 pounds a gallon, and it is a a necessary item to lift from the Earth's surface into space. Astronauts could use that weight to bring up other supplies they need for exploration, instead. The last item I find interesting about this article, is that if water exists, or is even abundant in outer space, then there is a possibility that there is other life like our own out in the galaxy somewhere. What that life might be like is the most interesting question of all.
This is extremely interesting in my opinion, but I still wonder, how much water did the asteroid have and if so, was it about the same amount found on the moon? Maybe this has happened before and that's why the moon had water on it? And if asteroids can have water inside, that means that water can be found all over the universe. It would be cool if they used examined if their was DNA in the water inside the asteroid. If they did that, they might be able to find unidentified "patterns" and maybe, in the future, duplicate it or something and create an alien. Overall, it was a very interesting article, but I honestly do wish they had expanded on what happened to the water and things like that. I get that they probably wouldn't find DNA because meteorites don't go from one planet to another, but who knows, that meteorites might be from the rubble of a planet, maybe a planet we once inhabited? All I know is that this article was a really cool, thanks Clyde :)
I agree with Yvette that the article was very interesting. I think that it is surprising to find out that earth is only 0.02 percent water whereas this asteroid was 26 percent water. I think that it is interesting that an asteroid may have brought the first signs of life to the earth and that this could be happening all over the universe. Which means that maybe in other universes there are people just like us living the same life. Imagine that there are 50 more Earths spread out across the galaxy! I also find it cool how an asteroid can hold (probably) millions of gallons of water. Or maybe even billions! Imagine 8.33 (the approximate weight of one gallon) and multiply it by 1 million. I wonder though, how strong did that white dwarfs gravity have to be to tear up an asteroid? Thanks for posting this Clyde. It was really interesting.
This article surprised, intrigued, and amazed me. I always thought that Earth had much more water than almost anything in space, but when I read about this asteroid it proved me wrong! At first I didn't quite understand the wording of it, but then I realized it meant that earth was 0.02% water COMPARED to the asteroid. Then I realized: Wow, that asteroid really had A LOT of water. Think about it: about 70% of Earth's surface is water, but that's only 0.02% compared to the asteroid. Also, the asteroid was estimated to be 90 kilometers (55.9 miles) wide, while Earth's diameter is about 12,756.111 kilometers (7926.3 miles) long! It's amazing to think that while this asteroid was certainly smaller than Earth, it still had so much more water.
I agree with Yvette when she mentioned how the most interesting question was if there is life, what would it be like. When she mentioned this I remembered a planetarium show I went to a while ago that mentioned one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, possibly having life. This is because beneath Europa's surface there are icy oceans with lava as the source of heat. Scientists believe that there may be some kind of alien life form living under Europa's surface. They believed the most likely form of life (this is also just common sense) would be a kind of bacteria or microorganism, but like Yvette said, there's no way to know.
This article really interesting. I find it sort of funny that scientists were looking for life forms of Mars. When there might be life forms on plant GD 61. It is really interesting how much water is on this plant. Even though it is a white dwarf plant, it contains so much water.
I agree with Yvette and Lilah on the point if there is living life forms there what would they be like? I would wonder if they were inteligente or stupid.
I thought it was interesting because it is at the end of it's cycle and it has water on it. I'm glad that it is multiple light years away, so it wouldn't be hitting us any time soon. If it hits us two things could happen. It will make Earth 100 percent water or 0 percent of anything. This is what I thought about the Pulverized Asteroid.
I found this article very interesting becuase how could earth's water be transfered to somwhere else. Some quesions I have is how much wawter did this planet have. I wish we could know more about the water, like if it was pure, and drinkable water.
I think that this article was very interesting. I did not know anything about this. I was impressed when the article said that this planet has so much more water than Earth. Comparing 26 percent to just 0.02 percent is a lot. It is about 130 times larger than the amount of water on the whole Earth! That is because Earth formed so close to the sun that a lot of water was not able to survive. I agree with Yvette and Lilah on the idea that since GD 61 has so much water and oxygen found on it, there is great chance that there was life here. There is a lot of evidence that water had existed there (a lot of excess hydrogen and oxygen). But the scientists are still not sure whether or not water was actually there, so if that is not true then there is less of a chance that life exists.
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