Privileged Planet: early Earth a water world new study (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 13, 2020, 15:06 (1717 days ago) @ David Turell

What is a surprise is water, nitrogen and carbon arrived late:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200312112658.htm

"Previously, many scientists believed that these elements were already present when the Earth began to form. However, geological investigations have now shown that most of the water in fact was only delivered to Earth when its formation was almost complete.

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"It is a generally accepted fact that volatile elements such as water originate from asteroids, the 'planetary building blocks' that formed in the outer solar system. However, there is ongoing discussion among experts as to when precisely they came to Earth. 'We have now been able to narrow down the timeframe much more precisely', said first author Dr. Mario Fischer-Gödde

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"Professor Dr. Carsten Münker added: 'If we still find traces of the rare platinum metals in the Earth's mantle, we can assume that they were only added after the formation of the core was completed. They were certainly added during later collisions of the Earth with asteroids or smaller protoplanets, so called planetesimals.'

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"'Our findings suggest that water and other volatile elements such as carbon and nitrogen did indeed arrive on Earth very late, during the "late veneer" phase', Fischer-Gödde concluded. This result is surprising because the scientific community had previously assumed that water-bearing planetary building blocks were already delivered to Earth during the early stages of its formation."

Comment: Just more information as to how the Earth was put together to make it so magical.