‘Earth’s water came from asteroids, not comets’
12 Dec 2014 1:16 AM GMT
Water on Earth is more likely to have come from asteroids that hit our planet billions of years ago than comets, European researchers said on Wednesday.
Mankind’s first-ever probe of a comet came last month when the European Space Agency’s Philae lander touched down on the duck-shaped 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, but the latest report in the journal Science comes from an instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft that has been studying the comet’s interior since August.
“We have to conclude the terrestrial water was brought by asteroids more likely than comets,” said Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator on the ROSINA mass spectrometer.
Mankind’s first-ever probe of a comet came last month when the European Space Agency’s Philae lander touched down on the duck-shaped 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, but the latest report in the journal Science comes from an instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft that has been studying the comet’s interior since August.
“We have to conclude the terrestrial water was brought by asteroids more likely than comets,” said Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator on the ROSINA mass spectrometer.
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