It was announced this week that scientists have found ’significant amounts’ of water (in the form of ice) on an asteroid called 24 Themis, which is currently hurtling between Mars and Jupiter. The discovery — which also includes tiny organic molecules not unlike those that may have started life on Earth — has caused a great deal of excitement (and also some head-scratching) in the scientific community.
For one thing, it may help explain where Earth got its water. It has long been accepted that when Earth formed several billion years ago, it was a totally dry, barren place. Sort of like Tucson. One long-standing theory holds that water arrived on Earth via comets, which makes sense until you realize that the chemical composition of the water in comets doesn’t quite match up with the water here on Earth. With this discovery, it seems as though asteroids might be a more likely point of origin.
Of course the discussion doesn’t end there, because the presence of so much ice on 24 Themis blurs the line between what is technically an asteroid and what is a comet. You may recall that we had a similar discussion here last month. We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available. In the meantime, check out this cool slideshow about asteroids, and then see if you can say the term ‘error ellipsoid’ five times fast.
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I think there are other planets also in this bigger Universe where the life actually exists in one or more forms. The design of the planet makes it possible to get the life going in these planets. I don’t think it all has happened due to only comet that brought up the water, there are other factors too.