Where did Earth's water come from?

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by ezguine

Hello, a response to a very old post.
I believe that earth's water is the ashes of a former atmosphere consisting mostly of hydrogen which at some point was ignited and the whole atmosphere flashed into flame. The resulting compound from the chemical reaction is today's water. Just thought I'd throw my late opinion out there after coming across this post on Google

Do you have evidence to support your idea?

One very serious problem I see with this is that the H2 would need O2 to ignite and create water. Current "early Earth" theories assume that the O2 was created by ocean living bacteria. In other words, in order to have the oxygen needed to create such an ignition, you would have to have water first.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by ezguine

Hello, a response to a very old post.
I believe that earth's water is the ashes of a former atmosphere consisting mostly of hydrogen which at some point was ignited and the whole atmosphere flashed into flame. The resulting compound from the chemical reaction is today's water. Just thought I'd throw my late opinion out there after coming across this post on Google

That's an intersting idea, just what other chemical did the hydrogen react with and where did it come from?

[raymond723]

I think it's from the ocean or outer space

[JMJones0424]

I love this site, I find new things to stimulate my mind every day.

I have no evidence to support this, not sure when/where I heard it, I may even have dreamt it up.

I thought that water vapor, in the absence of a magnetosphere created by a moving liquid core, when exposed to solar radiation, would split into hydrogen and oxygen. In the upper atmosphere, the hydrogen would be blown away by solar wind. This explains why H2 is rarely found in the smaller, closer rocky planets. By this reasoning, Mars likely had water when it had a magnetosphere. But since the core has solidified and solar radiation was allowed to penetrate the atmosphere unimpeded, it lost the majority of its water by losing the hydrogen. The excess oxygen combined with other elements, leaving the only remaining water that which is protected from evaporation underground.

Same process on the moon, but more rapid due to less atmosphere and gravity, and probably less water to begin with if the moon is considered to be the leftovers of a massive strike by a protoplanet early in the history of what became the Earth.

Never really looked into Mercury or Venus, they rarely peak my interest.

Like I said, this is probably entirely wrong, just what I had thought. If it is wrong, why?

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by JMJones0424

I love this site, I find new things to stimulate my mind every day.

I have no evidence to support this, not sure when/where I heard it, I may even have dreamt it up.

I thought that water vapor, in the absence of a magnetosphere created by a moving liquid core, when exposed to solar radiation, would split into hydrogen and oxygen. In the upper atmosphere, the hydrogen would be blown away by solar wind. This explains why H2 is rarely found in the smaller, closer rocky planets. By this reasoning, Mars likely had water when it had a magnetosphere. But since the core has solidified and solar radiation was allowed to penetrate the atmosphere unimpeded, it lost the majority of its water by losing the hydrogen. The excess oxygen combined with other elements, leaving the only remaining water that which is protected from evaporation underground.

Same process on the moon, but more rapid due to less atmosphere and gravity, and probably less water to begin with if the moon is considered to be the leftovers of a massive strike by a protoplanet early in the history of what became the Earth.

Never really looked into Mercury or Venus, they rarely peak my interest.

Like I said, this is probably entirely wrong, just what I had thought. If it is wrong, why?

I wouldn't say that it is wrong. Photodissociation is a commonplace event in the atmosphere of Earth. I highly reccomend that you visit the thread "H2 escape into space"

Good stuff there and in the linked threads/links!