By Uche Ubong
For centuries, scientists have debated the origin of Earth’s water — the vital ingredient that makes life on our planet possible. Now, a groundbreaking study from researchers at the University of Oxford has finally provided a clear answer: Earth’s water didn’t come from asteroids, as many believed. It was here from the very beginning.
The team studied a rare meteorite found in Antarctica, known as LAR 12252. This ancient space rock is made of the same material that helped form Earth over 4.5 billion years ago. Using powerful X-ray technology, scientists discovered that the meteorite is rich in hydrogen sulphide, a key component needed to form water.
This challenges the long-standing theory that water arrived via icy asteroids millions of years after Earth formed. Instead, the new findings suggest that the planet’s original building blocks already contained the hydrogen necessary to create water when combined with oxygen.
“We’ve shown that water was likely an inevitable result of Earth’s formation,” said lead researcher Tom Barrett, a PhD student at Oxford. “Our findings mean that planets forming under similar conditions elsewhere in the universe could also have water from the start.”
The study, published in the journal Icarus, has major implications not only for understanding Earth’s past, but also for the search for life beyond our planet. If water is a natural byproduct of planet formation, it may be more common in the universe than previously thought.
While asteroid impacts may still have contributed to the water on Earth’s surface, this research strongly supports the idea that most of Earth’s water was built in from the beginning — deep within the planet’s core and mantle.
This discovery marks a major leap forward in planetary science and opens new doors in the quest to understand how Earth — and potentially other planets — became capable of supporting life.
