Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe - Where Did Earth's Water Come From?

Episode Date: November 22, 2018

Young Earth was hot and dry. Where did the oceans come from? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA. terminal, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate.

Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Thanksgiving Week, and we just wanted to say thank you for listening to our podcast. Thanks, everyone. This podcast has been amazing experience, and it's only possible because you actually download it and listen to what we say. And hey, if you want to thank us for doing the podcast, please rate us on iTunes or the iHeartRadio app. Or leave us a comment at feedback at danielohorhe.com. Or show up at Jorge's house on Thanksgiving Day with a stack of bananas.

He'll be very grateful. Or a big cosmic turkey. A big cosmic turkey. All right, happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hey, Dano, you know that water that you're drinking right now? It's delicious and crisp and clear, yes. Yeah, or that water that you took a shower with this morning. I mean, assume you took a shower this morning.

Yeah, that water is less crisp and clear right now, but yes. Or the water in the oceans, in lakes, in ponds, in rivers all around the earth. Do you know that water? You're making me have to go to the bathroom more, hey. Well, I heard. heard that all that water came from space. Are you telling me that I'm drinking and showering in space water? Space water.

Water from space. But here's a big mystery. Nobody knows where in space all this water came from. I mean like there's a huge ice water tanker out there somewhere? Yeah, or maybe a giant alien with a squirt gun. And they probably are going to come and get their water back eventually. Ooh, we better drink it up. Or flush it down.

And now that they won't want it back. You know what? You just keep your water, Earth. We'll go find some more. Hi, I'm Jorge. And I'm Daniel. And this is Daniel and Jorge Explain the universe. The entire universe.

explained for you. All the parts of it, even the wet ones. The damp ones, the dry ones, the one you left out to dry, but didn't actually dry very well and gave you chafing the next day, all of that's going to be explained. Yeah, even the chafing part.

Even the chafing, even the uncomfortable bits. We are not shying away from that. Today on the episode, we're going to ask the question, where did all the water on Earth come from? That's right. Earth is the only planet we know of that has liquid water on the surface. Is it the only planet the universe with liquid water? And where did all this water come from?

Yeah, did somebody just open a tap and filled up the oceans there? Or did it rain from outer space? Some interstellar RV just flushed their toilet onto the Earth billions of years ago. That's right. Maybe we're just the... We're the gray water dump for interstellar space? Yeah, we're the latrine for the solar system. The latrine.

Yeah, well, it's a fascinating question because, you know, the Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years, and we're pretty sure there's been water on it for almost all of that time, for most of that time, because life has been around for more than 4 billion years, and life needs water. Yeah, it's

super important, but scientists don't really know where it came from abruptly. That's right, because when the Earth was forming, it was really hot and nasty, and there was no atmosphere. So in the very early days of the Earth, it must have been dry. It was being blasted by solar radiation and boiled off from the surface.

So there's no water on the surface of the earth in the beginning, but then there's water later. So it's a big mystery. Where did all the water on earth come from? That's right. As usual, we went out and asked people on the street. Here's what you had to say. It's a good question. Never thought of that?

Ice maybe? But then again, how did the ice come about? I don't know. Well, that's... All right, I don't know that one. I really don't know. comments is my guess oh i don't know i think it was here but i mean well because there's like glaciers and i don't know that's i don't know that's a good question i don't know all right so nobody said uh we're

the latrine of the universe that's good it's not a popular opinion yeah which means you own that idea horrid that is your idea in the future when that one is proven true you will be given and sole credit for it. Yeah. Yeah. Or what I'm thinking of like septic tank. That's the word I was looking for. Septic tank.

I'm glad you just put that image into everybody's mind, this interstellar septic thing. The thing I really liked about these interviews going around asking these people is that most of the people had never thought of this question at all. I mean, people have thought about the water cycle, evaporation and rain and toilet flushing. But nobody ever wondered where did the water come from in the first place? Well, yeah, it's such a natural thing. You know, like, we can't even imagine life without water.

So why would we wonder where it came from? It's just there. Right. Well, you look at other planets, though, you don't see water. Like, you see, look at Mars. It's not covered in liquid oceans, right? I guess I hadn't thought about that before, you know? Like, why is the Earth the only blue planet on the solar system?

Like, why are we so special? Yeah. Well, Earth has some advantages, right? It's in the right zone. So in order to have liquid water, you need, first of all, to have water. But then you also need to have enough temperature to keep it liquid and enough pressure and enough atmosphere to keep it from boiling off. You need to be in the zone to have water. That's right.

The earth was in the zone. The sloppy, wet, happy zone of the solar system. The slip and slide zone. They should have called it the slip and slide zone, not the Goldilocks zone. You mean like when you go to these water parks or like SeaWorld and if you sit to close you might get splashed? That's right, exactly. We're in the water zone. That's right.

We're not actually the only planet, right? Like Mars had water at some point, right? Because they found evidence of like rivers and they think maybe there's still water maybe frozen at the ice caps of Mars? There's definitely water on Mars in the form of ice. The question is whether there's still liquid water and they recently found some things

that suggest there might be subterranean oceans on Mars. And there are other places in the solar system that have oceans under like frozen ice or under the ground. Okay. But the Earth is the only place in the solar system we know that has liquid water on the surface. Mars definitely has ice on its surface. You can see the polar ice caps, which are partially CO2 and partially water. But there's definitely water on Mars, just not liquid oceans.

Let's break it down what you said before. So you said we need to have the right temperature and the right pressure. Yeah. So that's interesting. Like I can imagine if Earth was hotter, everything would boil off. But even if it boils off, wouldn't it just hang around as clouds or water vapor? That's a great question. Yeah.

So if the Earth is hot enough, then. then it'll boil off all the water. It couldn't be liquid. But then you need something to keep it around the Earth, right? Water vapor floats, right? There's not a whole lot of gravitational pull on water vapor. And so it's just going to drift out into space unless there's something keeping it here,

some blanket wrapping the Earth and keeping stuff on it. And that's the atmosphere. You mean gravity wouldn't be enough to hold the water vapor in? Yeah, I think if Earth suddenly lost all of its atmosphere, then the water, the oceans would boil into space. It would just Yeah I think it would take a while

It wouldn't be instantaneous And you're right Probably we'd be first surrounded By a haze of water As the oceans boiled off into nearby space But we wouldn't be able to hold the oceans to the earth's surface

Without the atmosphere Doing its job So you're saying because we're wrapped In a blanket of gas Other gases like air And nitrogen And oxygen That helps keep the water

Inside That's right Yeah And that's why we're pretty sure Earth was dry in its early days because there wasn't an atmosphere when Earth first formed. Okay, so step us back. So how do we know the Earth wasn't just born with water? Why does water need to come from somewhere? Why couldn't we just have water?

So the Earth probably was born initially with water, right? And the Earth is formed out of dust and gas and all this just rubble from earlier supernova, right? Stuff from the inside of stars strewn out in a space, collected together into a solar system that formed the sun and all the other planets. And included in that was definitely some ice, right? Because these stars burn and they make oxygen, oxygen reacts with hydrogen, and you get water. And out in space, water becomes ice. So in its early days, some of the ingredients that made the Earth were definitely water.

But you compress it down, you form the Earth, it gets really, really hot, and the water bubbles up to the surface, and there's no atmosphere, and just boils away. In fact, all of the inner planets probably also got blasted by the sun. So much solar radiation just fry. all that ice and turned it into vapor, which floated away. So then the earth was born with water, but we probably dry it out right away. Exactly.

Then we needed a source for water, and it must have come from somewhere outside of the earth. That's right. It's like you leave your shirt out to dry in the sun, right? It gets all dry. You come back a few hours later, and it's wet again. You imagine somebody must have hosed it down. A new source of water came and refreshed it. So that's the mystery.

And that's where we are. That's where we are now. The shirt is wet. Why is it wet if I left it out in the sun days ago? Exactly. Who emptied their latrine on my shirt slash plant? Oh, no. This is getting pretty dirty. It's getting pretty septic in here, yeah. Yeah. So water must have come from outside of the earth.

But then, I guess, do we have to wait until we formed an atmosphere before water could stick around? Yeah, absolutely. You need an atmosphere to keep water on the surface. So you need the surface to cool down a little bit, right? So you need a few hundred million years or a hundred million years. And you also need atmosphere. Okay. And where did that atmosphere come from? That's a good question. A lot of it that people think came from volcanic eruptions.

So just like CO2 vented from volcanoes. Some of it may have come from, you know, asteroids being vaporized when they landed. But mostly the early atmosphere was CO2. We didn't have oxygen in the atmosphere until later. Oh. about whether we could have made water on Earth from combining hydrogen and oxygen. In the very early days, before life, there was no oxygen. You mean like the rocks that formed the Earth maybe had gases inside of it, inside the rock?

And then eventually that all kind of popped out to the surface, and then we formed our anwasier and possibly also water. Yeah, so the initial rocks definitely had some gas in there, and then it bubbles up like a big belch, right, and comes out in volcanoes and forms an early atmosphere. Okay. And so we didn't have what we needed to keep the water early on. So we know that we didn't, that we couldn't have kept the water early on.

We must have lost it. And so now, but then we formed the capacity to keep the water around, to build a canteen. So the earth burped formed a coat around it, which said, hey, now we can hold water. That's right. Open for business. Burp. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long?

This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity. With Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance, it keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com.

Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, so you can work, Create and boost productivity all on one device. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her.

Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him?

Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal, glass.

The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and Order Criminal Justice System is back. In Season 2, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, so there's different possibilities then. If the water didn't come from the Earth and we didn't make it with our own gases, what are some of the ways that Earth could have received this water that we shower in now? Well, we're pretty sure it has to come from inside our solar system because everything else is just too far away, and that would be too incredible. and probably the subject of an awesome science fiction novel, somebody should write about extra solar water. Star water.

Star water. Star waters. Return of the H-2-O. Return of the wet-eye. And the water strikes back. But there's plenty of water in the solar system, right? The outer planets also have huge contributions of ice. Like two-thirds of Uranus and Neptune are probably made of ice.

Wait, two-thirds of Uranus is made out of water. That's right. Uranus. And, you know, the comets and the asteroids and everything sort of outside of the asteroid belt and a little further away out of the inner planets has huge amounts of ice in it. And they were far enough away from the sun that they weren't blasted by the solar radiation. And so it stayed as ice. So if you're looking for like the raw material, there's plenty of ice out there in the solar system. The question is, how does it get from out there, a comet and out.

asteroid, a chunk of a planet, and land on Earth, right? That's the mystery. It's not like water is rare in the solar system. There's a lot of water in the solar system. The question is just like, how did it get to our planet, which is sitting pretty close to the sun? That's right, yeah. Since our planet got boiled dry, how did it get refilled? And how do you get that water from the outer part of the solar system into the inner part of the solar system? Okay, so you set some possibilities there. Like some comets could have brought it. asteroids could have brought it. Yeah, so Comets was a really favorite hypothesis for a while.

I also think it's pretty awesome, right, to imagine, like, imagine a dry Earth and then... Thirsty. And then how could you get enough water to make oceans? I mean, oceans are just, it's mind-bogglingly vast. I mean, I live by the Pacific. Every time I see it, I just can't imagine how much water that is. I mean, miles deep and... Like the size of the ice cube that must have crashed into Earth for there to be so much

water. Yes. But then you think about it other ways, and it's actually not that much water. I mean, it covers like 70% of the Earth's surface, right? But it's a really thin layer compared to the size of the Earth. The depth of the oceans is almost nothing. Wow. It's like

it's vast and immense, but at the same time, with the right perspective, it's like a little wet coating on a big rock. That's right. If you held the Earth in your hands, right? All the things that we think are big features of the Earth, right? the mountains in Asia, the deep deserts and all that stuff, the oceans. These are tiny little details on the scale of the earth, right?

Remember, the earth is 8,000 miles in diameter. Mount Everest, for example, is what, six miles high? The Marianas Trench is like eight miles deep. These things are tiny features. The earth would feel like a smooth, like an eight ball in your hand, maybe with a little bit of dampness where the oceans are. So you don't actually need that much water. Because if the ocean is only eight miles deep,

at its deepest, and the earth is 8,000 miles in radius, then we're really just talking about like a little tiny coating on the surface of the earth, right? Yeah, it's a thin film of water on the surface of the earth. Of course, it's bagillions of gallons of water, right? But it's not that much compared to the size of stuff that's out there. So you really just need a few big blobs of ice, and boom, you have an ocean, right? So it's space glaciers. Have you seen that anywhere?

Like, has anyone calculated how big of an ice cube must have crashed into Earth for us to have as much water as we have? Yeah, it's not that much volume. I mean, compared to, like, the size of those ice planets, right? Neptune and Uranus, it's a tiny little bit. You just need to break off a little piece. And there are asteroids out there in the asteroid belt that are big enough for sure. And anyway, so it's fun to look out at the ocean and imagine, like, wow, this whole ocean could just be like melted comets. Imagine how many comets I would take.

melted comets. Yeah, exactly. Let's go for a swim in the melted comets. Let's stop calling them oceans or seas. Let's just call them melted comets. Right, except that nowadays we're pretty sure it's not comets. I mean, it's an open question. The short answer is nobody knows.

But the first idea was comets because people know the comets are mostly made of ice. Okay. And so they thought, well, if enough comets hit the earth, maybe that would explain it. As a crazy idea is that sounds, right? It actually would explain it. Because a comet is just a giant flying. ice ball. It's a huge snowball, exactly, that's orbiting the sun. And that's how they get their tail is that the snow is melting and spraying. And you can see when they come into the

inner part of the solar system, the sun does to a comet what it did to the earth billions of years ago. It fries it and dries it. Oh, I like that. Fries it and dries it. That's the motto for my fast food chain, which I'm opening soon. Fried and and dry it. That's my new product now on sale in the home shopping network. Fry it and dry it. Frying it and dry in it. The Make your own comment. It's called the Suns. I don't even have to ship you anything and say, leave outside, we'll be fried and dry.

It's a scam. Hope nobody dumps a latrine on it. So people thought comets was the explanation for a while, but then they went out and they measured some comets and they looked at the ice in the comets and they discovered that the ice on Earth is different. The water on Earth is different from the kind of water that you find on those comets.

Wait, so we can tell, what kind of water is in a comment? First of all, there's different kinds of water. That's like regular water, light water, dark water. There's mineral water, there's bubbly water, there's tap water. Yeah, vitamin water. Is that what you mean? Smart water, life water. No.

So we know that water is made out of H2O, right? That's hydrogen and oxygen. But there are actually a few different kinds of hydrogen. It depends on how many protons and neutrons. So you can make it out of normal hydrogen, or you can make it out of deuterium, which has an extra neutron in it. And the ratio of like normal hydrogen to deuterium you find in your water

tells you something about where the water was made. Specifically, it tells you how cold it was when the ice was formed. What do you mean how cold? How would the coldness affect which kind of type of hydrogen you would use to make water? Well, look, water and ice is a really strange thing. There's like huge fields of study, of people studying, how ice is formed and the ice crystals and it's a really complicated subject that we still don't understand, but that's a topic for a whole other day. But the temperature at which the ice

forms determines how much of different kinds of hydrogen like to get into the ice and what fraction of them like to mix together. And so the colder it is, the more you get deuterium as a part of the ice. And so you can see where ice was made, because the further away from the sun it was made, the more of this deuterium it has in it, right? It'll be a different flavor depending on where in the solar system it became water. Yeah, I don't know if it actually tastes different.

I've never licked a comet before. Have you licked a comet before? It feels like something I should know about you already. Maybe, yeah, well, that's why you need to fry it and dry it. Space comets. Fry it, dry it, and then lick it. I don't know if it tastes different. I don't know if it's healthy or not.

But the water on Earth has a very particular ratio of this deuterium, and the stuff out in space is a different ratio. And so people landed on comets and got samples from comets, and they measured the water on these comets, and they found out, whoa, these comets were formed out in the deep reaches of space. That ice is different from the ice we found here on Earth. So it couldn't have come from a comet. The thing is, we haven't measured that many comets.

It's not like easy to go up and sample comets. So the first few measurements people got, they thought, oh, wait, this is totally different. And then they measured another comet, and it had water which was pretty consistent with Earth. So we don't have a whole lot of samples of comets, but it makes sense if the water from comets is colder. It was formed when it was colder, and so it has a different ratio. And so it was sort of a different flavor, as you say, than the water we find on Earth. Okay.

That makes comets less likely to be the source of water on Earth. Well, this is a perfect point to take a break. Ah, come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity, with Intel core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around.

Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carp powered by Intel Core Ultra processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't. trust her now he's insisting we get to know each other but i just want her gone now hold up isn't that against school policy that sounds totally inappropriate well according to this person this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age and it's even more likely that they're cheating he insists there's nothing between them i mean do you believe him well he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet so do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not to hear the explosive finale listen to the okay

Storytime Podcasts on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually. impelled metal, glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene.

In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and Order Criminal Justice System is back. In Season 2, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight. That's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order, criminal justice system on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts so they checked off comets could not be the source of water on earth right well another really

good possibility are asteroids because asteroids are much closer right there's a whole asteroid belt out there in the solar system. Comets come from much further out, right? The orch cloud, these frozen objects deep beyond Pluto. Asteroids are hanging out here in the solar system with us, and so they have a ratio of deuterium to normal hydrogen that's much closer to what we find on Earth, and so they're a much better candidate.

You mean there's like big chunks of ice in the asteroid belt? Is that what you mean? Or is the ice kind of mixed in with the asteroids? Both. I mean, every asteroid is different, but they think on average asteroids are like 20% water. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. And they've even found asteroids that have liquid water inside them. Inside of the rock.

Yeah. So water can survive inside the rock. But also asteroids are, they're snowballs also. They have, you know, chunks of ice in them as well. Less so than comets, but they're more rock, but there are big chunks of ice out there. I guess they're out in space, which is like a big freezer. Yes. They would maybe naturally pick up any water that's floating around. Exactly. Exactly. Now, somebody out there listening might be thinking, well, still asteroids are further out there than Earth, right? If the water came from the asteroid belt or from stuff out there like Neptune, then shouldn't it still have a different ratio?

And how would that explain the water we see here on Earth? Okay. So to that listener, yeah, good question. That's basically the heart of the question right now. People don't understand. That's what we're all thinking, yeah. Yeah. Wait, so you're saying the water on Earth still doesn't match the water in the close.

or asteroid build. It's still a different kind of water. That's right. Some asteroids seem to match it, but other asteroids don't. And so some people think, oh, we've understood it. It's definitely from these asteroids. Other people think, no, it's not well explained because many of those asteroids have a different

balance of deuterium and hydrogen. It's not a perfect match. It's not a perfect match, yeah. It's still like the DNA evidence in a CSI episode where it's like, yes, your honor, the water came from this This asteroid.

This asteroid is guilty of dumping itself on Earth and providing for all life. No, we should be congratulated about calling it guilty, right? I mean, without these asteroids or whoever providing the water, then none of us would be here talking about it. So it's not possible for the water to have come to Earth and then change somehow in terms of the ratio of the different kinds of water? It's not possible? Not that I'm aware of. No, that's a good question. Oh, wow.

Okay. So it's still a mystery then. It's still a mystery. And there's one fun idea, which is that maybe the solar system was arranged differently when this ice was made. It could have been that Saturn and Jupiter used to be much closer to the sun, and the asteroid belt was also much closer. And that's when that ice formed. And then Saturn and Jupiter had a near miss, which caused them to both jump out further and settle in further out orbits and pull the asteroids with them. And so it could be that the asteroids were formed when they were closer to the sun, so it was a little warmer, and that's when that water was formed. And then it got moved out into the asteroid belt. But people don't really know.

There's a lot of crazy ideas about to explain the configuration of the solar system. Oh, you mean that water we have on Earth could come from a different solar system, basically, like back when the solar system was different. And that would explain why it's different than the water that we see. out in the asteroid belt. Yeah. Not a different solar system as in another one, but a solar system that's arranged in a different order. Yeah.

And so it would... Like a younger, hotter, hotter, solar system. Literally younger, hotter, tighter, wetter, solar system. Oh, geez. This just got NSFW. People are measuring this stuff and trying to figure it out. And it's a hard problem to solve because the information is out there, but it's literally out there, right?

It's not easy to go. and say, what is the water like on Neptune? What is the water like on Uranus? What is the water like around Jupiter, right? It's not like we have that data, but it's so frustrating sometimes from a science point of view because we know the data's out there. And if you could just go out there and measure this

and a quick measure of this and a quick measure of that, then you could know so much about the history of the solar system and how it formed. And to me, this is really important stuff because it helps us think about the question, is there likely to be another planet with water on it? I mean, it's sort of an elaborate thing. Like, imagine that whole scenario is true, that in order to get ice on the, in order to get liquid oceans on the Earth, you had to have a solar system ranged this way at one point and then later be arranged another way and the water to get transported via these asteroids.

It's really complicated, right? It's like a Rube Goldberg machine. Yeah, it's like having a snowball's chance, you know. Snowball's chance in space. And, yeah, it makes it seem less likely that another planet out there is going to be found with liquid oceans. if that, in fact, is all necessary, right? There could be a thousand other ways, though, for water to end up on a planet.

You mean, like, the only reason we are here, you and I are here, and that any life is here, is this random collision of two objects in the vastness of space? Yeah, well, probably more than two objects. Probably a lot of asteroids rained down on Earth and deposited their water.

Oh, okay. Yeah, exactly. But it could also just be due to the randomness of Jupiter and Saturn's orbits. You know, right now, They orbit further out from us, and they serve to shield us, actually, from a lot of stuff. Also, a lot of comets don't hit the Earth because they're pulled away by Jupiter. Jupiter acts like a big linebacker out there knocking out big objects that might otherwise hit the Earth.

Wow. And so it makes it harder for us to be hit by comets. So the particular arrangement of our solar system might be absolutely necessary to get water onto the Earth. Wow. It really makes you think how precious life is. Like, life came about on Earth because of this really tiny, almost invisible thin film of water on this giant rock that could easily evaporate if the right conditions are not mad. That's right.

And that needed to have come from some other part of the solar system. Like, that just seems incredible that we're here at all. Absolutely. You know, when I'm cooking, for example, I'm always skeptical of a recipe that doesn't just let you dump all the stuff in together at once and mix it up, right? that's how I like to cook. Like, just put it all in there and mix it up. You're skeptical. Yeah.

When a recipe is like, now wait, don't add the egg whites until this step. I'm like, that's not necessarily. Anyway, maybe that's why my souffle doesn't turn. I'm glad I've never eaten it at your house, Daniel. But that's basically the recipe for the Earth, right? It's like mix a bunch of rock, compress it together, wait a few million years, then shower it with asteroids. Otherwise, you're not going to get this perfect thin film of water that allows life to grow.

Oh, my goodness. That's the Earth's souffle recipe. People are out there looking to see if there are other planets that have water on them. And there's a particular signature of liquid water on a planet you can tell from the kind of light that passes through the atmosphere of a distant planet. But so far we've never identified another planet that has liquid water on it, even outside the solar system. So even if we look for exoplanets and other solar systems outside of ours, we still haven't seen any with water. No conclusive evidence of liquid water on any planet anywhere other than the Earth on the surface. Wow.

There are a few places that have liquid water under the surface, like Europa, one of those moons. I'm pretty sure it has a huge ocean under a surface of ice. You mean it's one of the moons of Jupiter, right? Yeah. So it's not that far away. Not that far away, yeah. And it's a huge liquid water ocean, but it's under a thin coating of ice that protects it. And under the ice is the water, which is kept warm by various activities inside the planet,

you know, gravitational stress from Jupiter, et cetera, various sources of energy internally to keep the water from freezing, so it's not just covered with ice. And then you have this layer of ice that protects it from cosmic radiation, all sorts of stuff. Sort of acts like an atmosphere. It's like imagine an ice atmosphere, an ice atmosphere. Wow. And so people think there could be, for example, life in that ocean, right? that's a huge pile of liquid water.

They would be called Europans. It would be called Europans. And they would probably want to be part of the European community, the European Union. Which would be a branding disaster. That PR committee would need to get to work. But so far, no water on the surface anywhere other than Earth. But we'll keep looking. Wow.

That's a cool mystery. It makes my mouth water. Exactly. So next time you go out there. Really wet my appetite for knowledge. So next time you go out there and flush your toilet, think about the cosmic journey that those water molecules took. Yeah, riding an asteroid from deep into space, traveling trillions of miles, hitting the earth, joining the ocean, nestling life, evaporating into a cloud, raining down in a reservoir, all just to flush down your toilet. Sometimes in science, we ask questions about the simple things around us, and don't.

don't have good answers. Like, where does all the water come from? So there are great mysteries all around us. Well, signing up. See you next time. If you still have a question after listening to all these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge. That's one word. Or email us at Feedback at Daniel and Horre. Oh,hay.com.

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