A new theory for how oceans form on other worlds

Big Think

Center

High Factuality

A new theory for how oceans form on other worlds

The most dramatic scientific progress occurs when a new window into the Universe gets thrown open. When I was a graduate student, for example, I was taught that Earth was born hot and dry. Any water present at our planet’s formation got boiled away. So, because the only window we had on planetary evolution was our own Solar System, most astronomers were sure that the water making up our oceans must have been delivered later in Earth’s history th…