A new take on the origins of Earth’s water claims to reveal the composition of the Earth in the first few million years after it formed. This theory proposes the planet was dry before the collision that formed the Moon, which would make habitable Earth-like planets very much the exception, not the norm. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The source for Earth’s vast oceans has been a matter of debate for at least 400 years. Newton proposed that they are the product of comets, and in recent years, plenty of evidence has been presented for and against that proposition. We know that the early Earth was hot enough to turn water to steam, much of which should have escaped. Water could not have survived at the surface, but mu

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