Earth Was Created Faster Than We Thought

hubie writes:

This makes the chance of other habitable planets in the Universe more likely:

Up until now, researchers believed that it took more than 100 million years for the Earth to form. And it was also common belief that water was delivered by lucky collisions with water-rich asteroids like comets.

However, a new study from the University of Copenhagen suggests that it might not have happened entirely by chance.

"We show that the Earth formed by the very fast accumulation of small millimeter-sized pebbles. In this mechanism, the Earth was formed in just a few million years. Based on our findings, it appears that the presence of water on Earth is a byproduct of its formation" says Martin Bizzarro, who is a Professor at Globe Institute and one of the researchers behind the new study.

The results of the research not only show that the Earth was created much faster than previously thought, but that the presence of water is a predicted outcome of its formation process. This is important knowledge because it tells us something about planets outside our own Solar System.

"With this new planet formation mechanism, the chance of having habitable planets in the galaxy is much higher than we previously thought," says Martin Bizzarro.

Habitability is the potential for a planet to have the right ingredients at its surface for life to develop. One key ingredient for habitability is water.

[...] An example of this could be if comets, which are icy bodies, bombarded the surface of Earth towards the end of its formation.

"If that is how Earth was formed, then it is pretty lucky that we have water on Earth. This makes the chances that there is water on planets outside our Solar System very low," says Martin Schiller.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.