Linking mineralogy and spectroscopy of highly aqueously altered CM and CI carbonaceous chondrites in preparation for primitive asteroid sample return. A low mass for Mars from Jupiter’s early gas-driven migration. High-resolution simulations of the final assembly of Earth-like planets I. Water delivery and giant impacts in the ‘Grand Tack’ scenario. Earth’s water may have been inherited from material similar to enstatite chondrite meteorites. Source regions and timescales for the delivery of water to the Earth. Fossilized condensation lines in the Solar System protoplanetary disk. Constraints on the mass of a habitable planet with water of nebular origin. Evidence for primordial water in Earth’s deep mantle. Hydrogen isotope ratios in lunar rocks indicate delivery of cometary water to the Moon. in Planetary Astrobiology (eds Meadows V. The origins and concentrations of water, carbon, nitrogen and noble gases on Earth. The production of this isotopically light water reservoir by solar wind implantation into fine-grained silicates may have been a particularly important process in the early Solar System, potentially providing a means to recreate Earth’s current water isotope ratios.Īlexander, C. These results suggest that the Itokawa regolith could contain ~20 l m − 3 of solar-wind-derived water and that such water reservoirs are probably ubiquitous on airless worlds throughout our Galaxy. We also experimentally confirm that H + irradiation of silicate mineral surfaces produces water molecules. We used atom probe tomography to directly observe an average ~1 mol% enrichment in water and hydroxyls in the solar-wind-irradiated rim of an olivine grain from the S-type asteroid Itokawa. The Sun’s solar wind could provide an answer to balance Earth’s water budget. The isotopic composition of water in Earth’s oceans is challenging to recreate using a plausible mixture of known extraterrestrial sources such as asteroids-an additional isotopically light reservoir is required. Nature Astronomy volume 5, pages 1275–1285 ( 2021) Cite this article Solar wind contributions to Earth’s oceans