Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren vogelbom Here. A water surrounds us, falling from
Speaker 1: rain clouds, rushing down river beds, and pouring from faucets,
Speaker 1: and yet many of us have never stopped to wonder
Speaker 1: where does water come from? The answer is a complicated one,
Speaker 1: stretching way beyond the water cycle and all the way
Speaker 1: back to the very origins of the universe. It's essential
Speaker 1: to understand that water isn't just a liquid that happens
Speaker 1: to cover our planet. It's a medium for pretty much
Speaker 1: all life as we know it. A water's unique properties,
Speaker 1: such as its ability to dissolve many substances and its
Speaker 1: solid state being less dense than its liquid state, which
Speaker 1: is why ice expands as it freezes and floats in
Speaker 1: liquid water, make it invaluable. A water acts as a solvent,
Speaker 1: a temperature regulator, and a means of transportation for new
Speaker 1: tents and waste. And devoid of the water cycle, the
Speaker 1: complex chain of life on Earth from microbes to mammals
Speaker 1: would cease to exist. But let's go back, like way back.
Speaker 1: Shortly after the Big Bang, neutrons and electrons swarmed in
Speaker 1: ten billion degree heat within minutes, hydrogen and then helium
Speaker 1: unknown as the lighter elements had taken shape from these
Speaker 1: atomic building blocks in a process called nucleosynthesis. Lithium made
Speaker 1: a cameo as well, but generally the heavier elements didn't
Speaker 1: appear until much later, when the lighter elements underwent fusion
Speaker 1: inside of stars and during supernova Over time, stars sent
Speaker 1: wave after wave of these heavier elements, including oxygen, out
Speaker 1: into space, where they mixed with the lighter elements. Of course,
Speaker 1: the mixing of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and the subsequent
Speaker 1: formation of water are two different things. That's because even
Speaker 1: when hydrogen and oxygen atoms get together, they still need
Speaker 1: a spark of energy to form water. The process is
Speaker 1: a violent one, and so far nobody has found a
Speaker 1: way to safely create water on Earth. So how did
Speaker 1: our planet come to be covered with the stuff. The
Speaker 1: simple answer is we still don't know, but we have
Speaker 1: a few ideas. One theory states that nearly four billion
Speaker 1: years ago, the early Solar System was overrun by millions
Speaker 1: of asteroids and comets, which slammed into the surface of
Speaker 1: our relatively young planet. A quick glance at the Moon's
Speaker 1: crater pocked surface gives us an idea of what conditions
Speaker 1: of early Earth might have been. The theory goes that
Speaker 1: these crash landing celestial bodies weren't solid rock, but rather
Speaker 1: the equivalent of cosmic sponges, loaded with water that was
Speaker 1: released on impact. While astronomers have confirmed that water rich
Speaker 1: asteroids and comets exist, some scientists think that the theory
Speaker 1: doesn't hold water huh. They question whether enough collisions could
Speaker 1: have taken place to account for all of Earth's water. Also,
Speaker 1: a researchers from the California Institute of Technology found that
Speaker 1: water from the comet hail Bop is different from normal
Speaker 1: Earth water. Ours has the chemical formula H two OH.
Speaker 1: It's one atom of oxygen linked together with two atoms
Speaker 1: of the common hydrogen one isotope, which has in its
Speaker 1: nucleus only one proton a butt. Most of the water
Speaker 1: on the hail Bop is what's called semi heavy water,
Speaker 1: a form of water in which there's still one atom
Speaker 1: of oxygen, but one of the atoms of hydrogen is
Speaker 1: a different isotope called hydrogen two or deuterium. It has
Speaker 1: a proton and a neutron in its nucleus. The semi
Speaker 1: heavy water's chemical formula is h DO, and its higher
Speaker 1: mass gives it slightly different chemical and physical properties. So
Speaker 1: either the comets asteroids that hit Earth were very different
Speaker 1: from the hail BOP or Earth got its H two
Speaker 1: oh some other way. More recently, astronomers may have revealed
Speaker 1: that the former may actually be true. Using observations from
Speaker 1: the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOPHIA, which is
Speaker 1: a converted seven to forty seven aircraft that flies at
Speaker 1: high altitude with an infrared telescope sticking out of the
Speaker 1: tail section. A researchers found that when the comet Wordinin
Speaker 1: made its closest approach with Earth in December of twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: it was venting very ocean like water vapor into space.
Speaker 1: Wordenin belongs to a specific family of comets called hyperactive
Speaker 1: comets that vent more water vapor into space than others.
Speaker 1: The researchers deduced that its water is ocean like by
Speaker 1: comparing the ratio of observed H two O and HDO
Speaker 1: in that water vapor. Earth's oceans have a very specific
Speaker 1: ratio of those two hydrogen isotopes. And here's that wordinan
Speaker 1: shares that same ratio as Observing infrared wavelengths from the
Speaker 1: ground is impossible because Earth's atmosphere blocks these wavelengths. Only
Speaker 1: space telescopes and Sophia, which flies above most of the atmosphere,
Speaker 1: can make reliable observations of comets. Another theory states that
Speaker 1: a young Earth was bombarded by oxygen and other heavy
Speaker 1: elements produced within the Sun. The idea is that the
Speaker 1: oxygen combined with hydrogen and other gases released from the
Speaker 1: Earth itself in a process known as degassing, thus forming
Speaker 1: Earth's oceans and atmosphere along the way. And a team
Speaker 1: of scientists from Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology has devised
Speaker 1: yet another theory, which states that a thick layer of
Speaker 1: hydrogen may have once covered Earth's surface, eventually interacting with
Speaker 1: oxides in the crust to form our planet's oceans. Finally,
Speaker 1: computer simulations reported on in twenty seventeen suggested a closer
Speaker 1: origin or at least some water on our planet. This
Speaker 1: theory states that water could develop deep inside Earth's mantle
Speaker 1: and eventually escape via earthquakes or other geological processes. Water
Speaker 1: is so essential to life on Earth that a lot
Speaker 1: of research is devoted to finding it on other planets
Speaker 1: and moons, because where we find it, we may find
Speaker 1: alien life. However, here on our planet, a water's availability
Speaker 1: and quality are under threat. Pollution, over extraction, and climate
Speaker 1: change are just some of the challenges facing our planet's
Speaker 1: water resources. Addressing these issues is not only a scientific endeavor,
Speaker 1: but also a societal one. After all, while we can't
Speaker 1: say with certainty how water came to Earth, we are
Speaker 1: fortunate it did. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: where does water come From? On howstiffworks dot com, written
Speaker 1: by job An Adabury and Ian O'Neil. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with ho stuffworks dot Com
Speaker 1: and was produced by Tyler Klang. For four more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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