The Outer Solar System Contributed Nothing To Earth
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New research shows that Earth formed from inner Solar System material. Isotopic geochemistry analysis found no evidence that material from beyond Jupiter contributed to Earth's bulk composition. The results also support the idea that Earth's water wasn't delivered by comets.
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The Outer Solar System Contributed Nothing To Earth By Evan Gough - April 07, 2026 06:59 PM UTC | Planetary Science Piecing together the history of Earth's formation leans heavily on evidence from meteorites. Since the vast majority of meteorites come from asteroids, that means understanding asteroids can also lead to an understanding of Earth's formation. Together, asteroids and meteorites make up the population of debris left over after the rocky planets formed. Asteroids and meteorites are denizens of the inner Solar System. Astronomers have wanted to understand how much of Earth is made of inner Solar System material, and how much is made of other material from the outer Solar System, beyond Jupiter. Since conditions are so different in each region, so is the material that originated there. Determining the relative contribution from each part of the Solar System will help explain not only how Earth formed, but how planets form in general. The carbon content of meteorites and asteroids plays a central role in this issue. Scientists think that a substantial portion of Earth, between 6% to 40%, may have come from the outer Solar System. This can help explain how Earth got its water. Objects from beyond Jupiter typically contain more water ice. As Earth was accreting, some of the accreted material was from beyond Jupiter, or the Solar System's frost line, and when it joined Earth it brought water with ice with it. That's one hypothesis that explains Earth's water. New research in Nature Astronomy examined the chemical composition of known asteroids and meteorites to understand how much of Earth's bulk composition came from the outer Solar System and the inner Solar System. By extension, it tests the idea of water delivery from beyond Jupiter. It's titled " Homogeneous accretion of the Earth in the inner Solar System ." The lead author is Paolo Sossie from the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, at ETH Zürich in Switze...
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