The Water You Drink May Be Older Than the Sun.

 

The Water You Drink May Be Older Than the Sun.

A large portion of Earth’s water may have existed long before our Solar System was born. Scientists have found that much of the water in Earth’s oceans—and even more in comets—likely formed in the icy clouds of interstellar space before the Sun ignited around 4.6 billion years ago.

Using models of the early Solar System, researchers discovered that not all of this water could have formed after the Sun’s birth. Instead, ancient ice appears to have survived the collapse of the giant cloud that gave rise to the Sun, planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.

This suggests that water is not a rare feature of our Solar System but a common ingredient in planet formation across the Milky Way. If other stars formed under similar conditions, countless rocky worlds may have inherited vast reserves of primordial water from the very beginning.

Every glass of water you drink may contain molecules that drifted through interstellar space billions of years before Earth even existed—an extraordinary reminder that the building blocks of life are far older than our planet itsel