How it all started | Marine Biology
The Earth is over 70% water, our oceans are the home to many interesting, unique and undiscovered species. So far, we have discovered barely 5% of our oceans, we have hardly scratched the surface! But how did we end up with such lively and splendid oceans? Well, we all know that our solar system formed from the collapse of a large cloud of dust and gas. At the centre of this cloud, a dense ball of gas ignited to form the Sun. The unstable star unleashed many fierce solar winds (mainly electrons and protons). Over time this stream of charged particles pushed the remaining gas cloud farther and farther out, leaving only solid particles behind to clump together into rocks, planetesimals, and finally, the rocky planets of our solar system. The problem is that water, in the form of ice, couldn’t have been one of the solid particles that stuck around because the early inner solar system was too hot for frozen water, and any water vapour would have been blasted away by the solar wind. We know...