An international study led by researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya has discovered that carbonaceous chondrites, a class of meteorites, incorporated hydrated minerals along with organic material from the protoplanetary disk before the formation of planets.

Scientists from the study published in the journal Space Science Reviews note that these meteorites played "an important role in the primordial Earth's water enrichment" because they facilitated the transportation of volatile elements that were accumulated on the external regions of the so-called protoplanetary disk from which planets were formed more than 4.500 years ago. Earth was formed in an environment close to the Sun, very much reduced due to the relative lack of oxygen.

Carbonaceous chondrites come from asteroidal bodies that due to their size, generally inferior to hundred kilometres, never melted, and neither suffered internal chemical differentiation as planets did. Thus, the study gives clues about the initial accretion phases of the first bodies that formed the planets.

The meteorites analysed in this work belong to the NASA's Antartic collection, whose CSIC's Institute of Space Sciences is the only repository Spanish centre, and the meteorites that fell in Murchison (Australia) in 1969 and in Renazzo (Italy) in 1824. Representative samples of the two more-hydrated types of carbonaceous chondrites (CM and CR groups) have been studied.

"Chondrites constitute a fossil legacy of the creation of the planetesimals, which provide information about the accretion of the first building blocks of planets, and also about everything that happened inside them shortly after their formation. In this study, we want to go a step further to identify processes of water incorporation befallen in the same protoplanetary disk", explains CSIC researcher Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez, who works at the Institute of Space Sciences and has led the study.

CSIC researcher adds: "There is a great debate about the origin of water in Earth and our study proves that carbonaceous chondrites were able to transport water in a very efficient way in their matrices. That water seems to come from two types of objects formed at different distances from the Sun: hydrated asteroids and comets. Obviously, in order to know the origin of water in Earth, we must study not only the comets but also the carbonaceous chondrites that come from an asteroid population called transitional.

These bodies were far more numerous 4.000 millions of years ago, but suffered a gravitational destabilisation during Jupiter and Saturn's migration to its current location. Those that did not end being swallowed by Jupiter and Saturn were rejected towards the terrestrial planets and to other regions of the Solar System, transporting water and organic material inside them", explains the CSIC researcher.

The study also points at the direct implications for the origin of water in Earth. "Our calculations indicate that, coinciding with the so-called 'Heavy Bombardment' produced by the gravitational destabilisation of the main asteroid belt, billions of tons of carbonaceous chondrites reached Earth about 3.800 years ago. And they did it transporting in their fine matrices water and other volatile elements in form of hydrated minerals", says Trigo.

In this study have participated Safoura Tanbakouei and Victoria Cabedo from the Institute of Space Sciences; Albert Rimola from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; and Martin Lee from the University of Glasgow (Scotland).

Research paper

Related Links
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Scientists developed a method that allows removal of antibiotic residue from waste water
Tallin, Estonia (SPX) Feb 14, 2019
In February the article "Metal-doped organic aerogels for photocatalytic degradation of trimethoprim" written by the researchers of two research groups (nanoporous materials and environmental technology research groups) of Tallinn University of Technology was published in the high-impact peer-reviewed professional journal Chemical Engineering Journal. The head of the nanoporous materials research group, Lead Research Scientist Mihkel Koel, has, as a chemist, focused his research in particular on t ... read more