Earth's Water Is Older Than The Sun

[stromboli]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/26/earth-water-old-sun_n_5887862.html

Just how old is H2O? A fascinating new study suggests that some of the water molecules we drink and bathe in are way old -- as in more than 4.6 billion years old.

That's older than the solar system itself.

“Our findings show that a significant fraction of our solar system’s water, the most-fundamental ingredient to fostering life, is older than the sun," study co-author Dr. Conel Alexander, a scientist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C., said in a written statement, "which indicates that abundant, organic-rich interstellar ices should probably be found in all young planetary systems."

Got that? The study suggests that since some of Earth's water came from interstellar space, it's a good bet that water from interstellar space may also exist in other planetary systems -- and that says something about our search for extraterrestrial life.

“This is an important step forward in our quest to find out if life exists on other planets," study co-author Dr. Tim Harries, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Exeter in England, said in a separate statement. “Consequently, it raises the possibility that some exoplanets could house the right conditions, and water resources, for life to evolve.”

The scientists reached their conclusion with the help of computer models designed to simulate the evolution of a planetary system that originally lacked deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen that is found in some water molecules.

"With our simulations, we found that there wasn't enough energy to power the reactions to form the heavy water," study co-author Ilse Cleeves, a doctoral student in astronomy at the University of Michigan, told The Huffington Post in an email.

In other words, the models indicated that levels of deuterium now seen in Earth's water are too high to have arisen after the formation of the sun. So, some of the Earth's water predates the formation of the sun and the Earth and must have come from interstellar space.

Dr. Karen Willacy, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory astrophysicist who was not involved in this research, told Science magazine the finding was an "interesting result. We’ve been debating this for years, whether or not the ices have an interstellar heritage."

The study was published online in the journal Science on September 26, 2014.

More implications for life out there, like this thread
http://atheistforums.com/index.php?topic=6226.0

posted previously.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

And so creationism will say that the water from 'the flood' just got up and hippity hopped back into space from whence it cometh..

Hippity hop being one of the more obscure biblical references only a TV evangelist could ever explain..

[stromboli]

So much for the refreshing taste of mountain spring water. Shit is OLD.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

So much for the refreshing taste of mountain spring water. Shit is OLD.

What's even worse is fish pee in water.  Cool refreshing fish piss..

[stromboli]

What's even worse is fish pee in water.  Cool refreshing fish piss..

I'm more worried about Giardia than fish piss. I have had parasitic diarrhea. Guaranteed weight loss method. 

[Atheon]

But the individual molecules certainly reacted over those billions of years with other chemicals, so it's unlikely that an oxygen atom is still coupled with the exact same hydrogen atoms as when it was floating around in a nebula before the formation of the solar system.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Well of course our water is older than the sun. Any materials more complex than beryllium would have had to be formed by a an O, B, or A-class star. Our little G-class sun can't fuse atoms larger than helium, and even if it could those atoms aren't going to leave the sun until it's already dead.

[SGOS]

I read somewhere that the heavier elements were all formed shortly after the birth of the universe, at a time when large stars first formed out of the cosmic soup.  So I always assumed the elements came before the planets.  That heavy elements had to be forged in intense heat seems odd, because they seem so stable in our current environment.  They act like this is the way they just normally want to be, and wouldn't require any special catalysts to create them.

In my own intuitive but unscientific mind, I picture nothing but highly energetic sub atomic particles just after the big bang.  They are all floating around bumping into each other and can't wait to form into stable elements.  Where I should get such a notion, I have no idea.  That's just the way I pictured it, until I read about the requirement of intense heat.

It seems to me that if God created all of this, he wouldn't have made it so complicated.  You just poof things together.  If I were a god, I wouldn't have bothered with silly atomic particles.  You want a man, just poof one into existence.  He shouldn't need biological systems that tend to break down like intestines, livers, brains, and all sorts of unnecessary chemical reactions going on.  Just make a man out of a lump of clay, and forget those smelly internal organs.  You want conscious sentience?  Just endow the clay with it, and then give it some free will, and a desire to procreate.  Forget about sexual urges, and all things deemed evil and of Satan.

[DunkleSeele]

Ah! We don't need them heathens scientist to know the water is older than the sun! The good book tells us that Gawd created the Earth on the first day and the sun on the fourth day, and the good book is the Word of Gawd! Repent, you heathens! PRAISE THE LARD!

[PickelledEggs]

So much for the refreshing taste of mountain spring water. Shit is OLD.

So instead of "aging like fine wine" the new expression is "aging like water"? Interesting.

[stromboli]

So instead of "aging like fine wine" the new expression is "aging like water"? Interesting.

Another way to look at it is I am by comparison a friggin' infant.

[PickelledEggs]

Another way to look at it is I am by comparison a friggin' infant.

But also is that why when you lose water weight, you look like you got younger?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'm more worried about Giardia than fish piss. I have had parasitic diarrhea. Guaranteed weight loss method. 

With that knowledge of your medical history I'll pass..

[stromboli]

If I count all the water pissed out after drinking beer I would be -2.7 tons.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

As to the OP...pics or it didn't happen..