Where did our water on earth come from?

Question

Since earth was a star that eventually hardened and became a planet where did all that moisture -that forms our oceans today-come from?

Answer 1

The earth is not a star that hardened in the sense that you are probably thinking. It's true that everything that we see around us came from "recycled star stuff" that is created when stars reach the end of their lifetimes and create all of the elements heavier than helium and hydrogen.

When a star's life ends and all of the heavy matter is spread in space, it eventually forms large clouds in space. The clouds can get so big that they start to compress due to gravity and other forces. If the cloud is large enough, it will begin to get more and more dense until there is enough energy and heat to a create a hydrogen fusion reaction. A new star is born!

After the new start is born, though, there is still lots of extra material hanging around. After these elements combine and collide for a few billion years, the particles form rocks, then asteroids, and then finally planets. Think about it like little pieces of clay moving in space. As they hit each other, they stick together and get bigger.

The planets are made up of all of the elements that were in the original cloud, including lots of hydrogen (which is the most abundant element) and oxygen. Water forms as these combine through natural processes.

Answer 2

The earth is star stuff that was once part of the core of a star when it exploded. The fusion process of a star is what turns hydrogen atoms into heavier elements. When oxygen and hydrogen combine, it forms water. Current theory is that that comets (mostly ice) deposited the water on earth during many collisions during the formation of the earth. Where did comets get their ice? Do a search for 'Oort Clouds' and see what you come up with.

Answer 3

Remember Science subject during our early school years? We've learned that earth is comprised of 1/3 Land and 3/4 Water, which mean that the land area is mostly surrounded by water.

Answer 4

Water takes many different forms on Earth: water vapor and clouds in the sky; seawater and icebergs in the ocean; glaciers and rivers in the mountains; and aquifers in the ground, to name but a few. Through evaporation, precipitation, and runoff, water is continuously flowing from one form to another, in what is called the water cycle.

Because of the importance of precipitation to agriculture, and to mankind in general, different names are given to its various forms: rain is common in most countries, and hail, snow, fog and dew are other examples. When appropriately lit, water drops in the air can refract sunlight to produce rainbows.

Similarly, water runoffs have played major roles in human history as rivers and irrigation brought the water needed for agriculture. Rivers and seas offered opportunity for travel and commerce. Through erosion, runoffs played a major part in shaping the environment providing river valleys and deltas which provide rich soil and level ground for the establishment of population centers.

Water also infiltrates the ground and goes into aquifers. This groundwater later flows back to the surface in springs, or more spectacularly in hot springs and geysers. Groundwater is also extracted artificially in wells.

Because water can contain many different substances, it can taste or smell very differently. In fact, humans and other animals have developed their senses to be able to evaluate the drinkability of water: animals generally dislike the taste of salty sea water and the putrid swamps and favor the purer water of a mountain spring or aquifer. The taste advertised in spring water or mineral water derives from the minerals present, while pure H2O is tasteless. As such, purity in spring and mineral water refers to purity from toxins, pollutants, and microbes.

Scientists theorize that most of the universe's water is produced as a byproduct of star formation. Gary Melnick, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, explains: "For reasons that aren't entirely understood, when stars are born, their birth is accompanied by a strong outward wind of gas and dust. When this outflowing material eventually impacts the surrounding gas, the shock waves that are created compress and heat the gas. The water we observe is rapidly produced in this warm dense gas."

The coexistence of the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of water on Earth is vital to existence of life on Earth. However, if the Earth's location in the solar system were even marginally closer to or further from the Sun (a million miles or so), the conditions which allow the three forms to be present simultaneously would be far less likely to exist.

Earth's mass allows gravity to hold an atmosphere. Water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide a greenhouse effect which helps maintain a relatively steady surface temperature. If Earth were less massive, a thinner atmosphere would cause temperature extremes preventing the accumulation of water except in polar ice caps (as on Mars).

It has been proposed that life itself may maintain the conditions that have allowed its continued existence. The surface temperature of Earth has been relatively constant through geologic time despite varying levels of incoming solar radiation (insolation), indicating that a dynamic process governs Earth's temperature via a combination of greenhouse gases and surface or atmospheric albedo. This proposal is known as the Gaia hypothesis.

Answer 5

earth was not a star
god created the oceans as it is so

Answer 6

some think it came from meteors that would impact the earth and that were made up primarily of ice