Hartley 2: the key to Earth's oceans?

The relative concentration of hydrogen isotopes in Comet Hartley 2, according to the HIFI spectrometer on the Herschel spacecraft (ESA), corresponds to what is observed in the Earth's oceans. This result, according to Paul Hartog of the Society's Institute for Solar System Research. Max Planck (Germany), confirms the hypothesis that water on Earth is of cometary origin.

Previous studies of the composition of comets have contradicted this hypothesis, since they showed that the concentration of deuterium in the icy cores is about twice as high as that observed on Earth. The reason may be that all the comets studied previously were presumably formed near Jupiter and Saturn, while Comet Hartley 2 was probably “born” even further - beyond the orbit of Neptune, in the Kuiper belt, and then migrated to the inner regions Solar system.

Further observations, which are already planned to be carried out, including with the help of the Hershel mission, will help confirm this hypothesis.

O.Z.
based on ESA materials

Photo: ESA/AOES Medialab; Herschel/HssO Consortium

http://trv-science.ru/tag/kometa-xartli-2/

See also O. Zakutnyaya. “Small, active, mysterious...” - TrV-Nauka, No. 66, November 9, 2010.