Earth's water: where did it come from?

[BobHegwood]

Bob

You might be interested in this; particularity the Hadean period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_ ... l_elements

Hey, THANKS for the references. They were indeed enlightening - and easily
readable too.

These references only agree with what I'm saying and thinking though. I
thought that we had some of the "comet guys" lurking around here. Any
rebuttal to these references? I really AM interested in hearing what you have
to say. A private message would be fine too. Since I have so much time on
my hands now, I just get lost in the intricacies of this stuff, but I really AM
interested in knowing what people think.

Hell, I thought certain that someone would have yelled at me by now...

Thanks, Bob

[MKruer]

Not a problem. If they gave out degrees on finding information on the web, I would have a double doctorate in web searches. Also you will find most people here have been around for quite a while, and a lot of them have degrees in physics, so no one is going to yell at you or anything, (Unless you try to preach to us that the universe and physics are all flawed)

A lot of question about the universe are very fundamental, but often unknown because either we don?€™t have the evidence to prove things or we don?€™t have a reasonable explanation for what is observed. On top of that a lot of stuff is alien in concept because nothing like it exists on earth. Like how do you explain that gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn have no solid surface, only an ever increasing density of gas, so dense in fact that if you could strip away the upper layers, you could walk on it.

I myself try to explain stuff in layman?€™s term as to be easier to understand then some of the more technical information. It might be construed as slightly inaccurate, but it will at least be close.

In a recent example that you might be interested in, some one asked what would be required to turn the sun into a black hole. http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11571

[BobHegwood]

I admit it when I'm wrong, or change my mind...

See topic http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11600
for more information. Briefly, I saw a VERY good explanation of the
comet theories on the NATGEO channel.

Thanks, Bob

[slaughterhouse]

Well, there is a boatload (technical term) of oxygen in the crust of Earth, and there is a boatload of hydrogen in space, so if you can figure out how our local bubble collapsed long enough to allow for the interstellar hydrogen to combine with the early molten Earth's atmosphere, you'll get a boatload of water, along with a boatload of other nasty acids.

But the Moon is pretty beat up, and the Earth would have likely gotten more of the same. And there is also water falling on to Earth all the time. There are probably just as many "grains of ice" streaking through the atmosphere as there are "grains of sand". They turn to vapor, and produce micro snow showers, and this water joins Earth's hydrologic cycle. It is constant.

[PlutonianEmpire]

Wow, thanks for the explanations, I have a better understanding of this topic now.

[cartrite]

Perhaps another question to ask is where all the free nitrogen came from.
Except for the earth, this seems to be an uncommon gas near the sun but more common out near the gas giants.
cartrite

[Fenerit]

Perhaps another question to ask is where all the free nitrogen came from.
Except for the earth, this seems to be an uncommon gas near the sun but more common out near the gas giants.
cartrite

Yes, indeed. Even this it's a great question!