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Rosetta comet probe quashes Earth water theory

Posted at 4:52 PM, Dec 10, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-10 20:55:28-05

Europe's comet chaser is already breaking hearts.

Rosetta, the deep space probe that launched the first ever comet lander in November, has quashed an old theory that Earth's water once came from comets.

The results, published in the journal Science on Wednesday, show that Comet 67P's water has a different chemical signature than that of Earth.

That doesn't help solve the mystery of where Earth's water came from, since The New York Times reports about half of Earth's water predates the solar system. It must have come from somewhere.

Scientists are continuing to pour over data from Rosetta, which the European Space Agency launched in 2004, and its short-lived, lovable comet lander, Philae.

Find out more in this Newsy video:

Gavin Stern is a national digital producer for the Scripps National Desk. Follow him on twitter at @GavinStern or email him at gavin.stern@scripps.com.