New Space Evidence Suggests Our Water Could Be Older Than The Sun

Astronomers say the water that fills Earth's oceans ⁘ and the stuff you use to brew your morning cup of coffee or tea ⁘ may be older than the sun itself. A team of researchers used a giant Chilean telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, to make an unprecedented detection of a rare form of so-called "heavy water" in a young star system about 1,300 light-years away in space . It is the first direct evidence of water remaining intact through an interstellar journey , from molecular clouds to the materials that form planets.

This discovery suggests that much of the water in our own solar system could have come from billions-of-years-old ices, the researchers said. "Our detection indisputably demonstrates that the water seen in this planet-forming disk must be older than the central star and formed at the earliest stages of star and planet formation," said Margot Leemker, lead author of the research at the University of Milan, in a statement . "This presents a major breakthrough in understanding ⁘ how this water made its way to our solar system, and possibly Earth, through similar processes." More takeaways: See here