Water in the form of ice is the most abundant solid material in the universe. Much of it was created as the byproduct of star formation, but not all. For now, John Bradley, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and his team may have discovered a new source of water in our solar system. His lab experiments reveal that solar winds may be creating water on interplanetary dust.
In the form of solar winds, the sun ejects high-speed charged particles in all directions. Bodies in the inner solar system get bombarded with these winds continuously in varying intensities.
Small bodies, such as dust particles or tiny asteroids, fall victim to these harsh winds. Large bodies, such as the Moon, that do not have enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere fall victim to impact from tiny meteorites, as well as to solar winds. This form of bombardment causes a phenomenon called space weathering…
The modification leads to an imbalance in the structure of the particle sometimes causing occurrence of loosely-held oxygen and hydrogen atoms. This made scientists speculate that somewhere in these rims there is a chance that water could be formed…
That’s where Bradley’s work came into action. The team attempted to locate the formation of water using a highly-sensitive method of analysis called the valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy…
The idea was that, if water formed because of solar winds, it would be detected in only those samples that were exposed to hydrogen and not in those exposed to helium. And that is what happened. Bradley’s sensitive technique found presence of water repeatedly in only the hydrogen-exposed samples…
Bradley’s work implies that water molecules must have been forming for billions of years on interplanetary dust particles, on the moon and possibly on asteroids.
RTFA for the how and why and wherefores. Fascinating work.
Bradley doesn’t answer every question raised about the formation and distribution of water in solar systems, galaxies. The likelihood of several processes functioning independently and in concert is likely. Still – a qualitative addition to the body of astrophysical knowledge.