Many scientists and researchers are still wondering about when water first appeared on Earth. Some studies indicated that the neighborhood of Earth was very dry during the initial stages of the Universe. That means water was somehow brought to Earth through outside sources like the outer areas of asteroid belt present between Mars and Jupiter, and also some studies claim that the water found on Earth is quite similar to the asteroid belt’s water. But none of the studies could actually determine the source of water on our planet.
A recent study published in the journal Icarus suggested that water first came to earth through small bodies called planetesimals which are formed in the asteroid belt and also the regions around Jupiter and Saturn which lie beyond the belt.
Sean Raymond, the lead author of the study and an astronomer at the University of Bourdeaux, said that the growing giant planets are like toddlers throwing their food on the floors and walls. During the early moments of the solar system, when the planets were on their growth stage, the gas giants destabilized the orbits of the nearby planetesimals and hence stretched their paths from circles to ellipses thus pushing them across the orbits of Saturn or Jupiter.
Raymonds also added that the planetesimals rarely collide with the giant sized planets but still they do come very close and get huge gravitational kicks. They are spread all over the solar system and a fraction of them are deposited on the stable and new orbits of the asteroid belt. Some of them get kicked further from the asteroid belt and hence they land on some rocky planets thus providing them with water. Also, Raymond told that the exact amount of water deposited on Earth varies according to the structure of the disk as well as the materials surrounding the sun and also indicated about the possible migration of water-rich planetesimals towards Earth.
Researchers are trying to figure out why the solar system of our earth looks so different from others and why many huge planets of other solar system fly very close to their stars. But they also believe that as the technology enhances, they will get a clearer picture of other solar systems.