Oceans on Earth were 'home-grown' and formed because the young planet had a thick blanket of hydrogen, which reacted with oxides in the mantle to form lakes and seas, Japanese planetary scientists have said. The dominant view has been that Earth got its share of water from moisture-rich asteroids and comets that rained down on the planet during its formative years.Scientists believe that just after the Earth formed, it was very hot and dry. Theory suggests that millions of water-rich comets and asteroids bombarded our planet around 3.8 billion years ago, neatly explaining why oceans later appeared.What's more, the ratio of deuterium - or 'heavy hydrogen', so named because it contains a neutron in addition to a proton - to hydrogen in our seawater matches the value found in water-rich asteroids, suggesting a common origin.But, Hidenori Genda and his colleague Masahiro Ikoma from the Tokyo Institute of Technology believe otherwise."Water is essential for the origin and evolution of life. Why does water exist on Earth, where did it come from?

These are fundamental questions for human beings," said Genda.The team said evidence for the thick hydrogen shroud came from the Earth's orbit. Earth's orbit, like those of Venus and Mars, is very circular now, but models suggest it started out more elongated. If the planets were still submerged in a thick, hydrogen-rich solar nebula after they formed, however, the thick gas might have damped out any elongation of the orbits.However, if the water on Earth did form from a thick hydrogen atmosphere, it should have originally had a far lower value of the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio than we see in seawater today. Genda and Ikoma have got round that problem as well. Their calculations have shown that the ratio would have naturally drifted upwards over time.The researchers said several effects would have contributed to this rise, including leakage of hydrogen into space.

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We outta shoot a shoot some moisture rich bombs at Mars and see what happens

It would be like a 'Genesis Project', but where would we get all that hydrogen?

Can't we suck it from some gas giant hehe ?

take it in massive amounts from the ocean somehow this will not only achive the actual experiment it will also solve global warming

Someone needs to give us a freaking nobel prize or something for this awesome idea

I believe it takes someone with a Nobel Prize to nominate someone for one. I could be wrong, though. I was once.

~~Cebrakon

I'm sorry, but I really don't see how enough comets would hit Earth to give us OCEANS.

I don't see how we can make a container big enough for that job; and we need our ocean to cool our Earth's core and mantle and not sure how it would solve global warming

One question if anyone knows the answer it would be of great help. How much water do scientists believe exists in water heavy comets or asteroids. Also if the atmosphere of the early earth was in fact more intact due to this less elliptical orbit then how would this effect the smaller asteroids/comet's ability to actually make it far enough into the earths atmosphere to deposit their water based payload. Thanks.

Katana357

I've always thought that too, Zero. So this new idea of an atmosphere of hydrogen which combined with the abundant oxygen in the rocks to produce the oceans sounds much more reasonable.

~~~Cebrakon --wish I couldl do what I can imagine

This has been in the literature for a number of years- although debated. The first time you think about the deuterium levels, it stands to reason.