Physics
The water you drink is older than the Sun
Much of the water on Earth is older than the Sun. Water carries a heavy-hydrogen (deuterium) fingerprint that only deep interstellar cold can stamp in, and that the Sun's warm birth disk could never recreate. A 2014 study in Science estimates up to 30 to 50 percent of Earth's ocean water formed before the Sun ever began to shine.
Sources & further reading
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science)The ancient heritage of water ice in the solar systemThe 2014 study showing that much of the solar system's water is inherited ice, older than the Sun, traced through its heavy-water fingerprint.University of Michigan (via ScienceDaily)Water in the solar system predates the sunThe University of Michigan release explaining how the cold makes heavy water, and why the model shows the water is inherited from before the Sun.Scientific AmericanEarth Has Water Older Than the SunThe Scientific American write-up carrying the headline figures: up to 30 to 50 percent of Earth's ocean water, and 60 to 100 percent of comet water, is older than the Sun.European Space AgencyFirst measurements of comet's water ratioThe ESA report that comet 67P's water is over three times heavier than Earth's oceans, pointing away from comets like it as the source of our seas.Nature (Nature Publishing Group)Deuterium-enriched water ties planet-forming disks to comets and protostarsThe 2023 study finding that water in a distant newborn star's disk carries the same heavy-water fingerprint as our comets and oceans.
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