I'm not personally in the business of doing that, but if you are claiming it can't be done, you are way off base. barfo
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/20...er-come-from-Comet-Hartley-2-offers-new-clues http://www.ktvu.com/technology/29397420/detail.html http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-science-comets-idUSTRE7944JI20111005 http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Did_Earth_oceans_come_from_comets_999.html http://news.discovery.com/space/comet-hartley-water-111005.html
I am well aware of the theory the water was brought here by comets after the earth was formed. I was hoping Nik might have a different theory. Mine is that the water was here the whole time the earth was forming. There is geologic evidence of the oldest rocks being formed under water. That would indicate all the water was pretty much there very early on. So accumulation of oceans' worth of water in so short a time seems unlikely. And it's pretty obvious that water is common (as ice mostly) throughout the solar system, so why not assume it was everywhere, like where the earth formed?
Water is extremely rare on planets, as far as our limited knowledge can inform us so far. When you say "so short a time" I can't imagine what you are referring to. And you know the adage about when you assume.
I love these crazy theories by the anti environmental protection right. Water was always here, it will always be here, so we don't need to spend no fucking money on keeping it clean.
Water ice is on Mars and water in various forms exists on Earth. I don't think that can be described as "extremely rare". Further, to buttress Denny's point, water ice exists on several moons in the solar system. Ed O.
I guess I'm Johnny come lately to the show ... So Denny is this a serious question or am I missing a joke here? Because my answer probably isn't very impressive and really I don't know all that much about astrophysics. Off hand I'd guess that you "burn" hydrogen in an oxygen rich environment and you'll get H2O, so where did all of the oxygen and hydrogen come from and why is the Earth covered with the byproduct of a these two elements' reaction? FuckifIknow Millions of oxygen or H2O rich foreign bodies like comets and asteroids impacting the planet billions of years ago? Oxygen-rich space dust coalescing/reacting with clouds of hydrogen? More likely the Flying Spaghetti Monster wiggled his noodly appendage and drained out the holy colander over the face of the Earth.
They say the moon has as much water ice as the earth has water. There are moons made almost entirely of water ice. Comets contain water ice. When you consider there is water or ice at just about any distance from the sun, it sure does seem to be everywhere.
If you're talking about the water we drink, I have to agree. If that's a personal remark, it's funny, but uncalled for.
It was a serious question. Seeing how hydrogen makes up the vast majority of matter in the universe, the byproduct theory is a good one. I raised the question partly because of Maris' links. The obvious question raised by the comet theory is why those could have water but the earth couldn't. They acreted from the same stuff.
Was definitely not meant to be personal, just a general slap at the city of Vancouver for giggles. I've never tasted Vancouver water, nor do I know where it comes from (presumably not really portland's sewage). barfo
Seems reasonable enough to me. I should give my brother at the Corps of Engineers a call or send him an e-mail -- he's a geologist -- maybe he knows something I don't.
For longer threads I just read the last 3-4 posts. So Vancouver water comes from Portland sewage? Is that where they make Lucky Lager? Is Prophet offended because his city Portland donates its sewage to far better outfits than Vancouver? Well I'll move on to the next thread.
Kewl. The science shows use fancy computer graphics as if they're real. They tend to show early earth as a molten ball of rock. That may be a reasonable thing, but why not a molten ball of rock surrounded by an atmosphere of steam? When the earth cooled, the steam would condense and fall as rain, giving us oceans' worth of water. The geologic evidence is that there was lots of water so early on that comets hitting the planet over a few million years doesn't seem like enough. Also, the first life forms were so early in our history that water must have been there...
This link isn't about water, but it shows that there are a lot of big asteroids close to Earth's orbit, intersecting our orbit now and then. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1109/29wise/
