How was water formed on earth?

The planet we know today isn’t the same planet that is born.

At the start, our planet was a dry rock.

Over time vast oceans have covered the stretches of the planet.

Water was supposedly a late addition, as the current theories suggest that it rained down in asteroids from the icy outer solar system. 

However, it is important to note that even though this has been the long-standing theory, the idea of earth being born as a dry rock is being challenged now.

New research adds weight to a competing idea that Earth was born

Some key points to note before we continue:

Water is abundant in space but it was thought that Earth was dry when it formed

A new study shows that meteorite rocks of the type that built the Earth contain the building blocks of water

This means that water formed on Earth from day one rather than being a later addition
 
It is important to remember that water is abundant in space.

It is made up of hydrogen created in the Big Bang and oxygen released from dying stars.

Another important point is understanding the solar system and its formation.

The planets of our solar system were created around 4.6 billion years ago from clumps of rocks spinning around the Sun.
 
This indicated that Earth was molded from rocks that came from the inner solar system where the fierce heat of the Sun would have boiled away any water.

So, according to this logic, water must have come later.

However, recent studies have shown something different.

According to cosmochemist Laurette Piani from the Université de Lorraine, the ingredients to form water were bound up in the rocks that formed Earth.
 
Another prolific team of people led by Dr. Piani analyzed 13 rare meteorites that come from remnants of rocks that orbited the inner solar system when it was very young — before planets formed.
 
These meteorites (called enstatite chondrites) are made of the kind of rock believed to have formed Earth. These discoveries have led to the creation of the theory that many scientists are taking a deep dive into.
 
Dr. Piani even stated that At least three times the amount of water in the Earth's oceans can be provided by these enstatite chondrites.
 
She and colleagues didn't analyze water itself in the rocks but measured one of its building blocks — hydrogen, bound up in the minerals — as a proxy instead.

Dr. Piani added that if we have hydrogen, it will combine with oxygen to create water very easily on Earth
 
The researchers found the hydrogen signature in the meteorites matched that of rocks found in a layer of the Earth called the mantle.

Like the meteorites, rocks in the mantle also contain a lot of oxygen bound up with minerals, which can be liberated under certain circumstances, and combine with the hydrogen to form actual water — H20.

This happens in magma, molten rock containing dissolved water that rises from the mantle to the surface in volcanoes.

As the pressure falls, the water evaporates and explodes into the atmosphere as steam, and later condenses, falling back to Earth to fill our rivers and oceans.

In fact, according to the theory supported by Dr. Piani and colleagues, this is exactly the process that would have produced Earth's oceans from the precursors of water hidden in the planet's building blocks.
 
Even new research suggests a mix of both these theories.

It suggests that Earth’s water came from both rocky materials, such as asteroids, and the vast cloud of dust and gas remaining after the sun’s formation called the solar nebula.
 
Earth’s ocean water is similar to that found in asteroids.

That’s one reason scientists have long thought that most earthly waters came from an asteroid bombardment in the days of the early solar system. 
 
No matter where it came from, water is what we humans need for survival. It is crucial that we as people do our best to preserve all of its beauty for our future and beyond.