Solar wind contributions to Earth’s oceans

Daly, L. et al. (2021) Solar wind contributions to Earth’s oceans. Nature Astronomy, 5(12), pp. 1275-1285. (doi: 10.1038/s41550-021-01487-w)

Abstract

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. The Sun’s solar wind could provide an answer to balance Earth’s water budget. 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. We also experimentally confirm that H+ irradiation of silicate mineral surfaces produces water molecules. 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. 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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Daly, Dr Luke and Christou, Mr Evangelos and Hallis, Dr Lydia and Lee, Professor Martin
• Authors: Daly, L., Lee, M. R., Hallis, L. J., Ishii, H. A., Bradley, J. P., Bland, P. A., Saxey, D. W., Fougerouse, D., Rickard, W. D.A., Forman, L. V., Timms, N. E., Jourdan, F., Reddy, S. M., Salge, T., Quadir, Z., Christou, E., Cox, M. A., Aguiar, J. A., Hattar, K., Monterrosa, A., Keller, L. P., Christofferson, R., Dukes, C. A., Loeffler, M. J., and Thompson, M. S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Nature Astronomy
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2397-3366
• ISSN (Online): 2397-3366
• Published Online: 29 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Nature Astronomy 5(12): 1275-1285
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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• Data DOI: 10.5525/gla.researchdata.1164

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
308251		UK leadership in extraterrestrial sample return	Martin Lee	Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/T002328/1	P&S - Physics & Astronomy
172314		A journey from the solar nebula to planetary bodies: cycling of heat, water and organics	Martin Lee	Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)	ST/N000846/1	GES - Earth Sciences