
The Water in Your Glass Might Be Older Than the Sun - DiabloD3
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/science/the-water-in-your-glass-might-be-older-than-the-sun.html
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venomsnake
Almost every hydrogen atom in existence is older than the sun. Wild guess
majority of the oxygen.

But due to the photosynthesis cycle the water not captured in icecaps is
pretty new. Probably couple of 10s of millions years old.

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jessriedel
Yea, it was extremely unclear what the author meant by "age". If the author is
defining the age of the water by the time the hydrogen bonded to the oxygen,
and the age of the sun by when it started fusing, then I presume you're right.

Do you have a source for the claim that the majority of the Earth's liquid
water has been through a photosynthesis cycle? Seems plausible but not
obvious.

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venomsnake
If I say for source - kids documentary I watched 20 years ago will it fly?

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madaxe_again
What a weird article. It says nobody knows where deuterium comes from ("One
idea is that much of the heavy water formed in the interstellar cloud and then
traveled across the solar system."), and abruptly ends. They could've at least
tried exploring or explaining the subject a little - right now it reads like
half an abstract.

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keithpeter
[http://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.7398.pdf](http://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.7398.pdf)

The paper cited in OA contains the physical model they used to simulate the
dynamics and mentions the monte-carlo analysis they set up.

I point students to Primo Levi's essay about carbon in his _Periodic Table_
when they want to think philosophically. This one ties in as well. As another
comment points out, the elements go back a long way, especially hydrogen!

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sambeau
I must confess that I had always assumed that all the water on Earth (along
with all the rock, metal, etc) was older than the sun.

If only half the water is that old, where did the other half come from?

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maaku
Read the article.

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sambeau
I did read the article. I have now read the article again. Nowhere does it
answer my question.

I can think of a number of natural mechanisms that would create water e.g.
fire but none that could create the massive amounts of water to fill half of
the oceans.

Was it life? If it was formed on Earth then where did all the hydrogen (and
oxygen) come from?

If you look at the Wikipedia page about it it mostly dodges the question:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth)

So, in case anyone here is more knowledgeable about the subject I'd be
fascinated (and grateful) to here what the current theory is.

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Udo
Hydrogen is very, very abundant, so the creation of water is always going to
be a thing as long as there is oxygen. We also know that the period referred
to as the Late Heavy Bombardment is likely to have showered the already formed
Earth with water-rich ice from the outer solar system. Most of this water
would be older than the sun.

The article only mentions the Great Oxygenation Event, but it's worth noting
that biological organisms today are breaking down and creating water all the
time as an essential part of their metabolism. It's not inconceivable that a
sizeable portion of water was originally synthesised out of rocky compounds
and atmospheric gases (such as methane) by archaic organisms.

All in all, we have identified many different sources for water on Earth,
signs point to all of them being a factor. We're just not sure how large the
individual factors are, but many people consider ice from the Late Heavy
Bombardment to be the biggest one.

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madaxe_again
I think you're reading a different article to the rest of us? Nowhere does it
mention the Great Oxygenation Event.

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Udo
For reference, _sambeau_ linked to this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth)
\- and specifically asked about more info on that. I know it was meant as a
snarky comment, but yes, we're talking different article here.

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known
Does it mean Earth is older than Sun?

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eru
The stuff that makes up the sun also also older than the sun..

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ChrisLTD
Turtles all the way down!

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crimsonalucard
Another crazy fact: The amount of molecules in a drop of water is
significantly more than the total drops of water on earth.

Statistically this means that you have likely tasted water molecules from
Jesus's blood and piss. Evidence of the holy communion.

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dsfuoi
And with every breath you take, you inhale millions of molecules of air that
were once inside Hitler (and every other person that was alive sufficiently
long ago).

