Scientists have discovered that the enrichment of the Earth with water and other volatile substances occurred during the first three million years after its formation. This could only have happened as a result of a massive collision with another large body. Therefore, the existence of life on our planet may also be a consequence of this event.
Volatile substances on planets
Scientists from the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern investigated how quickly water appeared on Earth. They came to a conclusion that confirmed the giant impact theory. Moreover, it is quite possible that without this event, life on our planet would be impossible.
Most scientists agree that the inner planets, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, did not have large amounts of water at the time of their formation. At the distances at which they exist, water ice and other volatile substances simply cannot remain stable for long enough. To confirm this, it is enough to simply look at the surrounding asteroids.
It is believed that after the dry primary Earth had formed, the remaining water present on it was brought by celestial bodies that flew from colder parts of the Solar System and collided with it. But were there a few large collisions or a bunch of smaller ones spread out over millions of years?
Rapid water saturation
It was precisely this last question that the researchers decided to answer. They have analyzed how the manganese-53 content in our planet’s rocks has changed. It has a half-life of 3.8 million years and decays into chromium-53.
Research shows that the saturation of the primary dry Earth with volatile elements occurred very quickly — just 3 million years after the formation of the Solar System. This means that the large number of collisions that led to this simply did not have time to occur.
There was one big collision, and this is consistent with other theories about the formation of our planet. It was the hypothetical planet Theia, whose debris then formed the Moon and brought us most of the water currently found on our planet.
However, without water, there can be no life on the planet. Thus, all biological evolution, which ultimately gave rise to humanity, is a consequence of this event.
According to phys.org
