The water molecule H2O is found everywhere in our galaxy, so the theory opens up the possibility of the existence of other similar planets.
Water was an essential part of the basic components of the Earth. Since its molecule occurs frequently, there is a reasonable probability that it applies to all the planets in the Milky Way.
It is the conclusion of a new study by the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen, which used a computer model to calculate how quickly planets form and from which building blocks.
The study, published in Science Advances, indicates that they were millimeter-sized dust particles of ice and carbon, known to orbit all the young stars in the Milky Way, which 4.5 billion years ago accumulated in formation. of what would later become Earth.
“To the point where the Earth had grown to one percent of its current mass, our planet grew by capturing masses of pebbles filled with ice and carbon. The Earth then grew faster and faster until it became as large as we know it today. Along the way, the temperature at the surface rose sharply, causing the ice from the pebbles to evaporate on the way to the surface, so that currently only 0.1 percent of the planet’s Milky Way it can be riddled with planets with oceans and continents is covered by water, ”says Anders Johansen, a professor at the GLOBE Institute’s Center for Star and Planet Formation, who together with his research team in Lund ten years ago put forward the theory that now confirms the new study.
The theory, called ‘pebble accretion’, is that planets are made up of pebbles that clump together and that the planets then grow larger and larger.
Anders Johansen explains that the water molecule H2O is found everywhere in our galaxy and that therefore the theory opens up the possibility that other planets have formed in the same way as Earth, Mars and Venus
“All the planets in the Milky Way can be made up of the same building blocks, which means that planets with the same amount of water and carbon as Earth, and therefore potential places where life may be present, they occur frequently around other stars in our galaxy, provided the temperature is right, “he says in a statement.
If the planets in our galaxy had the same building blocks and temperature conditions as Earth, there is also a good chance that they have roughly the same amount of water and continents as our planet.
Professor Martín Bizzarro, co-author of the study, says: “With our model, all planets obtain the same amount of water, and this suggests that other planets may have not only the same amount of water and oceans, but also the same amount of continents than here on Earth. It offers good opportunities for the emergence of life, ”he says.
“A planet covered by water, of course, would be good for maritime beings, but it would offer less than ideal conditions for the formation of civilizations that can observe the universe,” says Anders Johansen.
