When scientists found opal in a meteorite in Antarctica, they concluded that water and life, originated from somewhere else in the Universe. Professor Downes and her team have concluded that the opal has extraterrestrial origins. More specifically, they have stated that the opal was formed while the meteor was still in space. The meteorite then blasted off its parent asteroid and then landed on Earth.
As Nature World News reports, the meteorite is now called EET 83309. When found, scientists analyzed the composition of the materials and paid special attention to the helping of opal. The team was lead by Professor Hilary Downes of Brikbeck College London.
The discovery of Professor Downes and her team is not the first to prove that meteorites and asteroids were and are capable of bringing large amounts of water with them. Therefore, it is highly possible that water was, at one point, not natural to Earth.
"Billions of years ago, [the meteorites] may have brought water to the Earth," Professor Downes shares, "And helped it become the world teeming with life we live in today."
On the Earth, opal is formed through the pick up of sand and silica by water. This normally happens when water runs through the surface of the Earth, reports Mother Nature Network. When the silica and sand are swept away, they sometimes fall into cracks and, over time, turn into opal when the water evaporates and the silica hardens. Still, some of the water is trapped inside this.
Opan is one of the most popular and well known minerals on the planet. This is mostly due to its unique composition. Depending on its total weight, opal can have water content ranging from 3% to 21%. On average, it is between 6% and 10%. Nevertheless, the mineral is capable of carrying large amounts of water.
