JR Dieckmann
Is the universe full of water?
By JR Dieckmann
And God said, "Let there be a firmament between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the firmament and separated the water under the firmament from the water above it; and it was so. Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. The Book of Genesis 1, v. 6, 7, &9
Have you ever wondered where the Earth got its water? I have pondered this question for many years, and so have scientists around the world. I don't pretend to be a scientist, but I do have a theory about this which modern science so far has failed to consider. Perhaps my theory is as far out into space as the possible source of Earth's water — I'll let you be the judge of that.
To begin with, why does the Bible begin with telling us that God divided the "waters" into the "waters above" and the "waters below" the firmament? (In updated versions of the Bible, "firmament" has been replaced with "expanse." I use the word "firmament" here because it is the original wording, and updated versions have distorted the meanings of some of the text to conform to the understanding of the rewrite authors, which may or may not agree with the original intended meaning.)
The point here is that God's words talked about dividing the "waters from the waters." I find it interesting that this emphasis was placed on water before the Earth was even formed, which lends credence to what I am about to suggest.
No, I am not suggesting that God is a fish, however it does appear that life-giving water existed before the Earth, if you believe in God's words. But let us not get bogged down in a biblical discussion and move on to a more scientific discussion.
We know that water could not have existed on the Earth when the planet formed as a hot, molten ball of space debris. Likewise, water could not have existed when the planet was struck by whatever celestial object it was that created our moon, again turning the Earth into a molten ball floating in space. Water had to come to the Earth sometime later after the planet had cooled.
Scientists not long ago came up with the theory that the water came to Earth in its early days from comets, which are made mostly of water ice. What a hailstorm that must have been. Can you imagine how many comets it would take to fill our oceans?
This theory was put to the test on July 3, 2005 when NASA's Deep Impact "Impactor" probe smashed into Comet Temple 1. The collision threw up ice particles, which were captured and analyzed by the mother vehicle. It was found that the hydrogen isotope contained in the comet ice did not match the hydrogen isotope found in the waters of the Earth. Comets were ruled out as the source of Earth's water.
So the scientists and astronomers tried again. They pointed infrared telescopes at a 129-mile wide asteroid orbiting near Mars. Spectroscopic analysis of the asteroid 24 Themis reveals it to be coated in a thin layer of water ice that closely matches the water on Earth. The latest suggestion is now that water came to Earth via asteroids.
For either of these above suggestions to be true, you have to ask the question; where did they get the water? And why wouldn't the Earth get its water from the same source? There are only two possible answers. Either they were formed with a water content, or they collected the water after they were formed. In either case, where did the water come from?
Let us first consider what water is made of. An HO molecule is two hydrogen atoms bonded together with one oxygen atom. Not only is Hydrogen the most common element found in the universe, but is also the primary building block of matter. It is the first atom formed when energy begins to cool into mater.
Oxygen, on the other hand is somewhat heavier in atomic weight, but will attract hydrogen under the right conditions until it has acquired two of the little devils to create water, or water vapor. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the first element created in the universe after the "big bang" is the same element that makes up 2/3 of the water molecule.
Astrophysicists have been studying the size of the universe and trying to explain it in physical terms. Not only are they trying to determine the actual size, but also how it works. They have developed the science of astrophysics now to the point to where they can theoretically measure the forces that hold the universe together.
They want to know the eventual fate of the universe; will it continue to expand forever, or will it reach equilibrium between the forces of expansion and gravity. Or perhaps expansion will ultimately become contraction and the universe will collapse back into a singularity.
However, a problem with their equations has them stumped. In trying to balance their equations to describe accurately the current expansion, they find that about 40% of the matter in the universe is missing. In other words, the balance between gravity (galaxies pulling on one another) and momentum (galaxies expanding away from each other) is not what the equations predict.
The expansion is slower than it should be which indicates that there must be more matter and consequently more gravity in the universe than all observations have found — 40% more.
Unable to explain this phenomenon, they have resorted to a trick sometimes used in physics when an equation fails to balance. They invent something. In this case, they invented what they call "dark matter." Adding "dark matter" to their equations makes them balance, but they don't know what "dark matter" is.
It is my belief that this "dark matter" is water, or to be more precise, water vapor. It is impossible to detect because it consists of nothing but free H2O molecules floating around in space. Without air pressure and proper temperatures they cannot come together to form water, yet space may be full of water.
Our solar system was full of water when it first formed, but planets and asteroids orbiting the Sun have collected most of it by now. We see it everywhere on the surface of planets as ice, except for on Earth because of Earth's climate temperature and air pressure. Mercury and Venus are too hot to support water. Mars' thin atmosphere provides too little pressure to support water. However, the outer planets seem to have an abundance of water ice. NASA suspects that there may even be subsurface water oceans on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. This is not to be confused with frozen methane found also on the outer planets.
Planetary gravity has scooped up most of the water within the solar system. Comets are rogues that probably came from outside the solar system and were captured by the sun's gravity. They may have begun their life as small rocks and collected water molecules during their journey to our solar system, which would explain why we see them as ice balls.
But what about the space between the solar systems? More importantly is the space between galaxies. How much water may be there that we have no way of detecting, except by the mass and gravity of the universe which science explains with the use of "dark matter."
So the answer to where the water on Earth came from is; it came from space itself. I realize this may sound crazy to some who read this, but when you consider the evidence I have presented here, is it really so far fetched? Do you have a better answer to the question? If so, I would like to hear it.
However, before you do, ask yourself this one question: If water came to the Earth from some other source, how did the other source get the water?
Resources
http://www.biblebrowser.com/genesis/1-6.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8458183/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=frost-found-on-asteroid-10-04-29
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Display=Moons&Object=Jupiter
© JR Dieckmann
May 12, 2010
And God said, "Let there be a firmament between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the firmament and separated the water under the firmament from the water above it; and it was so. Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. The Book of Genesis 1, v. 6, 7, &9
Have you ever wondered where the Earth got its water? I have pondered this question for many years, and so have scientists around the world. I don't pretend to be a scientist, but I do have a theory about this which modern science so far has failed to consider. Perhaps my theory is as far out into space as the possible source of Earth's water — I'll let you be the judge of that.
To begin with, why does the Bible begin with telling us that God divided the "waters" into the "waters above" and the "waters below" the firmament? (In updated versions of the Bible, "firmament" has been replaced with "expanse." I use the word "firmament" here because it is the original wording, and updated versions have distorted the meanings of some of the text to conform to the understanding of the rewrite authors, which may or may not agree with the original intended meaning.)
The point here is that God's words talked about dividing the "waters from the waters." I find it interesting that this emphasis was placed on water before the Earth was even formed, which lends credence to what I am about to suggest.
No, I am not suggesting that God is a fish, however it does appear that life-giving water existed before the Earth, if you believe in God's words. But let us not get bogged down in a biblical discussion and move on to a more scientific discussion.
We know that water could not have existed on the Earth when the planet formed as a hot, molten ball of space debris. Likewise, water could not have existed when the planet was struck by whatever celestial object it was that created our moon, again turning the Earth into a molten ball floating in space. Water had to come to the Earth sometime later after the planet had cooled.
Scientists not long ago came up with the theory that the water came to Earth in its early days from comets, which are made mostly of water ice. What a hailstorm that must have been. Can you imagine how many comets it would take to fill our oceans?
This theory was put to the test on July 3, 2005 when NASA's Deep Impact "Impactor" probe smashed into Comet Temple 1. The collision threw up ice particles, which were captured and analyzed by the mother vehicle. It was found that the hydrogen isotope contained in the comet ice did not match the hydrogen isotope found in the waters of the Earth. Comets were ruled out as the source of Earth's water.
So the scientists and astronomers tried again. They pointed infrared telescopes at a 129-mile wide asteroid orbiting near Mars. Spectroscopic analysis of the asteroid 24 Themis reveals it to be coated in a thin layer of water ice that closely matches the water on Earth. The latest suggestion is now that water came to Earth via asteroids.
For either of these above suggestions to be true, you have to ask the question; where did they get the water? And why wouldn't the Earth get its water from the same source? There are only two possible answers. Either they were formed with a water content, or they collected the water after they were formed. In either case, where did the water come from?
Let us first consider what water is made of. An HO molecule is two hydrogen atoms bonded together with one oxygen atom. Not only is Hydrogen the most common element found in the universe, but is also the primary building block of matter. It is the first atom formed when energy begins to cool into mater.
Oxygen, on the other hand is somewhat heavier in atomic weight, but will attract hydrogen under the right conditions until it has acquired two of the little devils to create water, or water vapor. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the first element created in the universe after the "big bang" is the same element that makes up 2/3 of the water molecule.
Astrophysicists have been studying the size of the universe and trying to explain it in physical terms. Not only are they trying to determine the actual size, but also how it works. They have developed the science of astrophysics now to the point to where they can theoretically measure the forces that hold the universe together.
They want to know the eventual fate of the universe; will it continue to expand forever, or will it reach equilibrium between the forces of expansion and gravity. Or perhaps expansion will ultimately become contraction and the universe will collapse back into a singularity.
However, a problem with their equations has them stumped. In trying to balance their equations to describe accurately the current expansion, they find that about 40% of the matter in the universe is missing. In other words, the balance between gravity (galaxies pulling on one another) and momentum (galaxies expanding away from each other) is not what the equations predict.
The expansion is slower than it should be which indicates that there must be more matter and consequently more gravity in the universe than all observations have found — 40% more.
Unable to explain this phenomenon, they have resorted to a trick sometimes used in physics when an equation fails to balance. They invent something. In this case, they invented what they call "dark matter." Adding "dark matter" to their equations makes them balance, but they don't know what "dark matter" is.
It is my belief that this "dark matter" is water, or to be more precise, water vapor. It is impossible to detect because it consists of nothing but free H2O molecules floating around in space. Without air pressure and proper temperatures they cannot come together to form water, yet space may be full of water.
Our solar system was full of water when it first formed, but planets and asteroids orbiting the Sun have collected most of it by now. We see it everywhere on the surface of planets as ice, except for on Earth because of Earth's climate temperature and air pressure. Mercury and Venus are too hot to support water. Mars' thin atmosphere provides too little pressure to support water. However, the outer planets seem to have an abundance of water ice. NASA suspects that there may even be subsurface water oceans on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. This is not to be confused with frozen methane found also on the outer planets.
Planetary gravity has scooped up most of the water within the solar system. Comets are rogues that probably came from outside the solar system and were captured by the sun's gravity. They may have begun their life as small rocks and collected water molecules during their journey to our solar system, which would explain why we see them as ice balls.
But what about the space between the solar systems? More importantly is the space between galaxies. How much water may be there that we have no way of detecting, except by the mass and gravity of the universe which science explains with the use of "dark matter."
So the answer to where the water on Earth came from is; it came from space itself. I realize this may sound crazy to some who read this, but when you consider the evidence I have presented here, is it really so far fetched? Do you have a better answer to the question? If so, I would like to hear it.
However, before you do, ask yourself this one question: If water came to the Earth from some other source, how did the other source get the water?
Resources
http://www.biblebrowser.com/genesis/1-6.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8458183/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=frost-found-on-asteroid-10-04-29
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Display=Moons&Object=Jupiter
© JR Dieckmann
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