Did water come to earth by asteroids?

Water may have been brought to Earth by asteroids from the outer edges of the solar system.

A report in Deccan Herald (DH) suggests that scientists said this after analysing rare samples collected on a six-year Japanese space mission. Researchers scrutinised material brought back to earth in 2020 from the asteroid Ryugu.

The 5.4 grams (0.2 ounces) of rocks and dust were gathered by a Japanese space probe, called Hayabusa-2, that landed on the celestial body and fired an impactor into its surface.

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists said the Ryugu samples could give clues to the mystery of how oceans appeared on Earth billions of years ago.

“Volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth’s water,” said a study by scientists from Japan and other countries.

But the organic materials found “in Ryugu particles, identified in this study, probably represent one important source of volatiles”.