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Solar System's Water Is Older Than the Sun

Posted by timothy on from the waiter-has-this-water-been-well-aged? dept.

astroengine writes Next time you're swimming in the ocean, consider this: part of the water is older than the sun. So concludes a team of scientists who ran computer models comparing the ratios of hydrogen isotopes over time. Taking into account new insights that the solar nebula had less ionizing radiation than previously thought, the models show that at least some of the water found in the ocean, as well as in comets, meteorites and on the moon, predate the sun's birth.

5 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Of course it does. by Kuroji · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For anything in the solar system to be YOUNGER than the sun, it would have to be MADE by the sun, or as a byproduct of the sun achieving fusion. Our planet is younger than the sun itself, but the elements that comprise it are much, much older.

    1. Re:Of course it does. by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm still trying to figure out how there was a day and night before the sun existed? :-)

  2. Old water by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Funny

    If our solar systems water is older than the sun why does my bottle of Fiji expire in a year? :)

  3. Water Molecules by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Informative

    I believe that they are only considering the water molecules: the hydrogen atoms which make up water will be as old as the Big Bang. However since there are ice-based comets out there I hardly find it surprising that there was water in the solar system before the sun formed. Aren't the comets supposed to be the left over debris from the formation of the sun and planets? So this result seems to be just confirmation what we already knew.

  4. Age of Preceding Supernova by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The heavy elements on our planet and in your body were creation via fusion in another star, which has already long since died, exploded, and been recycled.

    We can do better than that. Based on the current ratio of Uranium-235 and 238 which are created in roughly equal quantities by a supernova we can date the super nova preceding the solar system to about 6 billion years ago. It's also interesting to note that had intelligent life evolved a billion or more years earlier than it did that the uranium ore we dig out of the ground would be weapon's grade without any complex enrichment process required. So there might be a limit on intelligent life evolving too soon after the formation of a planet.