Report: Icy asteroids responsible for supplying Earth's water

by Stevie Smith - Apr 29 2010, 09:24

A nearby asteroid covered in ice could hold the key to how planet Earth came to be covered in such huge amounts of water, according to data gathered by two teams of scientists and published in the forthcoming issue of Nature.

The asteroid in question, 24 Themis, is located between Mars and Jupiter and is one of the larger chunks of space rock presently in the belt separating the two planetary neighbours – the asteroid is believed to be more than 100 miles wide.

Nature’s twin reports regarding 24 Themis describe it as being partially covered in a thin coating of frost that’s replenished via a massive pocket of frozen water deep beneath the asteroid’s rocky surface.

“This asteroid holds clues to our past and how the solar system and water on Earth may have originated,” offered astronomy professor and lead study author Humberto Campins in an AP report.

“We’re showing that they’re wetter than we thought,” he added. “We’re showing they have organic molecules that might have been the building blocks of life on Earth.”

Insofar as explaining how a young Earth, which was formed billions of years ago as a dry and desolate rock, came to be covered in vast quantities of life-producing water, scientists believe it was delivered through impacts from water-laden comets and asteroids such as 24 Themis.

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