Challenging the long-standing theory that Earth’s oceans were delivered primarily by icy comets and asteroids, new high-pressure experiments suggest our planet may have manufactured its own water during its fiery formation. Researchers demonstrated that when iron-rich rocky pebbles accumulated in a hot, hydrogen-dense primordial atmosphere, chemical reactions produced liquid water within minutes—potentially generating hundreds of oceans’ worth of H₂O. Published in Nature Geoscience, the discovery implies that water creation is a natural byproduct of rocky planet formation, dramatically increasing the odds that Earth-sized exoplanets across the universe possess oceans capable of supporting life.
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