Planetary scientists claim to have for the first time found concrete evidence for the presence of liquid water in a comet. A team, led by Arizona University in the United States, says the finding has shattered the current paradigm that comets never get warm enough to melt the ice that makes up the discovery by analysing dust grains brought back to Earth from comet Wild-2 as part of the Stardust mission by Nasa.
"In our samples, we found minerals that formed in the presence of liquid water. At some point in its history, the comet must have harboured pockets of water," Eve Berger, who led the team, said. Comets are frequently called dirty snow balls because they consist of mostly water ice, peppered with rocky debris and frozen grass, say the scientists. "When the ice melted on Wild-2, the resulting warm water dissolved minerals that were present at the time and precipitated the iron and copper sulfide minerals we observed in our study.
"In our samples, we found minerals that formed in the presence of liquid water. At some point in its history, the comet must have harboured pockets of water," Eve Berger, who led the team, said. Comets are frequently called dirty snow balls because they consist of mostly water ice, peppered with rocky debris and frozen grass, say the scientists. "When the ice melted on Wild-2, the resulting warm water dissolved minerals that were present at the time and precipitated the iron and copper sulfide minerals we observed in our study.
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