If the probe ... detects the same ratio of hydrogen and deuterium isotopes as in our oceans it will be pretty solid evidence that it was such meteors that delivered water to our arrid planet after it cooled.
What is it that is so special about the ratio of isotopes in our oceans that other sources of water would not be expected to have similar ratios?
Why would water need to be "delivered" to our planet? Why could it not have formed
in situ ?? Is it just because the earth would have been hot when it formed? Wouldn't that be true of any celestial body... at least at one time?
HBD
Edited by herebedragons, : add subtitle
Whoever calls me ignorant shares my own opinion. Sorrowfully and tacitly I recognize my ignorance, when I consider how much I lack of what my mind in its craving for knowledge is sighing for... I console myself with the consideration that this belongs to our common nature. - Francesco Petrarca
"Nothing is easier than to persuade people who want to be persuaded and already believe." - another Petrarca gem.
Ignorance is a most formidable opponent rivaled only by arrogance; but when the two join forces, one is all but invincible.
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