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The results of chemical analysis of water samples on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show that it has three times more Deuterium than hydrogen in water molecules on Earth. Deuterium is also known as heavy hydrogen, a stable isotope of hydrogen. Out of 10,000 water molecules on Earth, three contain heavy hydrogen isotopes.
According to Reuters, the discovery rules out the possibility that Earths water came from comets, and opens up a new direction of research focusing on asteroids.
"Asteroids may have had more water than they do today. They have existed in the vicinity of the Sun for 4.6 billion years," said expert Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern, Switzerland, said. .
The European Space Agencys (ESA) probe robot landed on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, after a 10-year journey. According to initial data, the robot Philae detected traces of organic molecules containing carbon atoms, which are the basic elements of life on Earth.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered in 1969. It has a diameter of 4 km and is located about 500 million km from Earth.
What is water and where does it come from?
Youve probably heard of the atom, which is the smallest component of all matter in the universe. We are all made of tiny atoms put together. Atoms combine to form molecules.
A pure water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom. Scientists believe that Earths water was produced by water-rich minerals that melted during the formation of our planet and icy comets that hit the Earth billions of years ago and Melt.
Why cant we make more water?
Scientists can make a little water in the laboratory, but it is impossible to create a large amount of water for daily use, because of the extremely high cost, the production process creates a lot of money. high energy and can cause dangerous explosions.
The total amount of water on the Earth does not change, but the location and condition of water is always changing, i.e. water can be liquid (like the water we drink every day), or in solid (ice) or gas (vapor).
Scientists call the process of water changing state the water cycle, which is when water continuously moves around the world by traveling through the air, down to the ground, and out into the sea.
Turn around and turn again
The water cycle begins when water in the seas (or lakes, rivers, and swamps) evaporates into the atmosphere (i.e. into the air around us) as water vapor (a gas).
Hot air containing water vapor rises more and more gradually condensing into clouds. At high altitudes, the air is no longer able to hold water vapor, so the water becomes liquid again and falls to Earth as rain. Some of the rain evaporates immediately and returns to the atmosphere, the rest falls into the sea to become surface water or seeps into the soil to form groundwater.
Plants can absorb groundwater by their roots and transfer water to their leaves.
The groundwater flows slowly from the land to the sea and the cycle begins again.
The water cycle is very easily changed by the effects of temperature and pressure, for example, in hot and windy conditions, more water evaporates. So climate change affects the water cycle. Areas that were previously wet are becoming dry, and vice versa, because rain falls into the sea rather than on land, allowing land-based organisms to absorb and use the water.
Two small drops of drinking water
We drink fresh water, but most of the water on Earth is salt water, and most of the fresh water available on Earth is deep underground or underground.
In fact, you can imagine this: all the water on Earth is equal to a 1-liter can of milk, only 2 tablespoons of fresh water, the rest is salt water in the sea.
Of those two tablespoons of fresh water, nearly a quarter is frozen water, the rest is groundwater.
The fresh water we see and use from rivers, lakes, and ponds is only less than two drops of water compared to a whole 1-liter box equivalent to all the water on Earth.
Therefore, the protection of freshwater resources is extremely important because it costs a lot of money and effort to separate salt from seawater so that it can be used by humans.
The atmosphere, Earth, and sea are closely linked, and what we do in one place can affect the quality of water in other places.
Chemicals that are dumped into water bodies such as ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, seas or evaporated into the atmosphere will eventually seep into groundwater contaminating the water and we wont have enough clean water to use.
Even though we cant make more water, we can still keep it if we know how to conserve and protect it.
Article source: Collected
