Joana Campos Meteored Portugal 03/21/2023 16:00 5 mins 
A type of water heavier than Earth’s water has been discovered in a star 1,300 light-years from Earth.
Until a few decades ago The presence of water was considered unique on Earth, and it was actually used as a biosignature – biosignatures are defined as objects, substances, or changes over time that require a biological agent.
Until now it has been assumed that the presence of water on celestial bodies is an index of life, because it was precisely in this liquid that the first organisms appeared on the planet.
We know that today Water is not necessarily a biosignature but a compound present in many bodies, not only in the solar system but also in outer space.
Planets, asteroids, comets and even our moon all have water on their surface, but the explanation of how this compound was created in the cosmos remains a mystery to astrochemists and astrobiologists.
The water cycle in the cosmos
Water was known to travel from gas clouds to planet-forming disks in young stars, and then from comets to planets. However, There is a missing link in this understanding of the water cycle in the cosmos that does not predict how water moves from young stars to comets.
The latest discovery, made by a team of researchers led by John J. Tobin of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory, suggests that the “missing link” in determining the origin of water has finally been found.
With the ALMA telescope in Atacama, Chile, The team detected gaseous water in the planet-forming disk around star V883 Orionis. 1300 light years from Earth.
When a cloud of gas and dust forms in the Universe, it tends to collapse under the influence of gravity, resulting in the formation of a star at its center. The result is a star surrounded by a disk called the “planet-forming disk” because it is the nest of asteroids and planets that will later take shape.
Cientistas descobriram água no disco que cerca a protoestrela V883 Orionis, o que sugere que a água do Sistema Solar se formou bilhões de anos antes do Sol https://t.co/Wu8fqUGtrB
— Canaltech (@canaltech) March 8, 2023
Tobin and his team analyzed the planet-forming disk V883 Orionis when they discovered particles of a type of carbonated water that is chemically similar to water on Earth.
On Earth, water normally consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, but the version found by Tobin and his team is a bit heavier, one of the two hydrogen atoms is replaced by deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen.
This type of chemistry provides valuable information for astrochemists, because simple water and heavy water are formed under different conditions, so that it can be determined when and where the connection was formed.
Water is older than the sun
The amount of water measured around V883 Orionis is impressive: according to the researchers There is enough water to fill our oceans 1200 times. But that’s not all ! Its composition is also similar to that of comets in the solar system, suggesting that the compound would have frozen in the clouds of the planetary disc and then agglomerated as a comet.
This team of researchers discovered water in a gaseous state in a star 1,300 light-years from Earth, leading them to conclude that it predates our sun and therefore our solar system.
The results of the study are simply stunning, because they prove that the water is even older than our sun and thus the solar system itself. The water that gave life to water originated in space and then came to earth via comets.