By Hannah Devlin in the UK’s Times Online
Scientists have found new evidence that the water on Earth was delivered by asteroids during the earliest years of the solar system.
The development comes after two teams of scientists independently discovered the first “wet” asteroid, paving the way for the first experimental proof of a longstanding mystery surrounding the origin of water on Earth.
Scientists believe that the Earth was formed barren. During a period of intense bombardment, between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, ice-covered comets and asteroids could have delivered water. It had been assumed that these asteroids would have now dried out.
But the new observations, by teams using infrared telescopes at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, and the University of Central Florida, show that 24 Thermis, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system’s main asteroid belt, is covered in a thick layer of frost.
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[Read the rest at; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7110943.ece]
