--- title: "Water Existed Long Before the Solar System, Astronomers Find" description: "According to a new study, the water in our Solar System is likely older than our Sun — and the secret, they say, was discovered in another star." date: "2023-03-09" modified: "2023-03-09" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/water-existed-before-solar-system" categories: - "Energy" - "Off-World" - "Renewable Energy" - "Science & Energy" - "Solar Power" - "Space" tags: - "solar system" - "Sun" - "the digest" - "water" --- # Water Existed Long Before the Solar System, Astronomers Find ![According to a new study, the water in our Solar System is likely older than our Sun — and the secret, they say, was discovered in another star.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Old Water Water, as we're sure it's not terribly surprising to hear, is old. But according to a fascinating [new paper]() published in the journal *Nature*, it might be just a little bit older than we previously thought. "We can now trace the origins of water in our Solar System to before the formation of the Sun," John Tobin, the study's lead author and an astronomer at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory, [said in a press release](). That's right. According to this research, water is likely older than our Sun — and the secret, they say, was discovered in another star. The astonishing conclusion suggests that the presence of water is far more widespread in the universe and that even the water in our planet's oceans may have come from much further away than initially thought. ## Baby Star The star in question, V883 Orionis, is a relatively young — and still growing — cosmic body that's roughly 1,300 lightyears away from the Earth. As the researchers explain in their study, V883 Orionis is surrounded by a disk-like cloud of cosmic matter. During the birth of a star, a wide-ranging scope of interstellar material gets sucked into the birthing star's vortex. The disk surrounding V883 Orionisis is comprised of that sucked-up material, and once the star stops growing, the matter from the disk will one day turn into surrounding bodies like comets, asteroids, and ultimately, planets. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile, the scientists were able to study the disc's chemical makeup and discovered *a lot* of water, more than 1,200 times the amount found in all of the Earth's oceans combined. By analyzing the isotopes of hydrogen atoms present in the water, they were able to conclude that it likely formed *before* our Sun was even born. In fact, the team estimates that as much as half of the Earth's water may have existed before the solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago. "V883 Orionis is the missing link in this case," said Tobin. "The composition of the water in the disk is very similar to that of comets in our own Solar System." "This is confirmation of the idea," he added, "that the water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the Sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth, relatively unchanged." **READ MORE:** [*Astronomers Traced The Origins of Water to a Time Before The Sun*]() \[*Science Alert*\] **More on cosmic water:** [*Scientists Find New Evidence of Hidden Ocean World in Our Solar System*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()