Meteorites from the far reaches of the solar system delivered large amounts of water, carbon and volatile substances to the Earth. Only then could the Earth host life. Dr. María Isabel Varas-Reus, Dr. Stephan König, Aierken Yierpan and Professor Dr. Ronny Schönberg from Tübingen University’s Isotope Geochemistry Group, and Dr. Jean-Pierre Lorand from the Université de Nantes, provide evidence for this scenario in a new study. Using a method recently developed at the University of Tübingen, the researchers measured selenium isotopes in rocks derived from the Earth’s mantle. Identical isotope signatures in these rocks and in certain types of meteorites revealed the origin of the selenium as well as large amounts of water and other vital substances. The study has been published in the latest Nature Geoscience.
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Source: Phys.org