Mind-Blowing New Study: Water on Earth is Older Than the Sun and The Earth!

In a new study, researchers found that the water found in our solar system existed even before the Sun was created. Till today we knew, Sun was responsible for the existence of life forms and water but the study came as a surprise and made many scientists sceptical.

In a new study “The ancient heritage of water ice in the solar system,” that was published in the Journal Science on Sept. 26, a group of scientists looked at the history of water ice in the solar system by examining the ratio of hydrogen to its heavier isotope deuterium, also known as “heavy hydrogen” due to its extra neutron. The ratio of hydrogen with respect to its isotope deuterium can give scientists clues on the unanswered question “When water molecules formed?”

“Water throughout the solar system exhibits deuterium-to-hydrogen enrichments, a fossil relic of low-temperature, ion-derived chemistry within either (i) the parent molecular cloud or (ii) the solar nebula protoplanetary disk,” the researchers said.

Using statistical, and computer analysis for comparing ratios of hydrogen and deuterium over the time might solve the mystery. Scientists used this technique and found that water in the Earth’s ocean, moon, meteorites and comets contained similar level of deuterium, which suggests that some of the water on the Earth and the solar system existed before the sun was formed.

“The implication of these findings is that some of the solar system’s water must have been inherited from the sun’s birth environment, and thus predate the sun itself,” said study researcher Ilsedore Cleeves, from the University of Michigan. “If our solar system’s formation was typical, this implies that water is a common ingredient during the formation of all planetary systems.

The researchers believe the water that came from outside our solar system was brought to Earth by comets.

"That means that the human body, which is 60 percent water, contains a significant percentage of extraterrestrial aqua; in that sense, we are all part alien"

This news doesn't just affect Earth – the discovery of water molecules drifting all over our galaxy would suggest water is even more common on exoplanets.

The findings are consistent with other discoveries in and around our solar system, reports Forbes. Ice deposits have been found on comets and moons, as well as in mineral samples from meteorites and Mars.


A Stanford report estimates the sun is about 5 billion years old, and the Earth is roughly 4.6 billion years old. In 1997, a team of scientists concluded that the sun, too, contains water molecules in the form of steam.

*weather.com