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PhoenixReborn t1_ixje7tm wrote

What would keep it liquid? Wouldn't it be frozen?

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EarthSolar t1_ixjg46x wrote

It would evaporate, actually. Water can only be gas or solid in vacuum, and the temperature of the sublimation point is far lower due to the lack of pressure. At Earth’s distance, there is more than enough irradiance to simply turn all the water into gas.

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WictImov t1_ixjs3qi wrote

Halley's comet travels inside of Earth's orbit. It's perihelion is ~0.6au (aphelion is over 35 au). 1 au (astronomical unit) is the distance of the Earth from the Sun.

Halley's comet is roughly equal parts ice and dust. The ice is about 80% water, and most of the rest is carbon monoxide. Yes the Sun's irradiance will sublimate the ice, but there is also a time factor.

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EarthSolar t1_ixjui52 wrote

Yeah, but the water here starts out as liquid, as stated in the question, I don’t think it would be frozen.

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This_Username_42 t1_ixkwaw0 wrote

It would nearly immediately freeze.

The vacuum of space would cause water to boil off, drawing energy from the mass until it froze

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EarthSolar t1_ixl9k8e wrote

Oh right, thanks for reminding me of that effect. I concede.

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LackXofXThought t1_ixjdse6 wrote

I think this greatly depths Depends on the size of the liquid mass.

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Cupcake_Octopus t1_ixjefna wrote

Wouldn't it just be ice before it hit earths atmosphere. Then end up evaporating when it enters due to the heat created by air resistance?(friction?)

I'm now super curious too, if someone smarter than me ends up answering this will someone reply so I can see it?

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zhaDeth t1_ixjem7x wrote

Depending on how big it is it might not all evaporate

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s1ngular1ty2 t1_ixjfl79 wrote

It depends on the size. It it is the size of a comet (which is mostly ice) then it would wipe out all life on Earth...

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National_Payment_632 t1_ixjgw08 wrote

Assuming a quantity of water larger than would evaporate on entry, residual water would first hyper-charge existing cloud formations as well as create new cloud formations, resulting in intense rain or snow storms across the planet. These clouds would create new weather patterns across the globe, eventually resulting in the hydration of most of the planet's deserts. New flora and fauna would thrive in areas such as the Gobi and Sahara deserts. On the downside, the increased planetary saturation would result in elevated ocean levels, submerging many existing coastal regions.

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figl4567 t1_ixjh41q wrote

I think this is how the earth got its water. Huge chunks of space ice hit earth and melted. If we got hit with one and it doesn't kill us right away I'm curious about what the earth would look like. Land masses would change if sea water rises 40 feet

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s1ngular1ty2 t1_ixjkwkz wrote

If a large chunk of ice like a COMET hit Earth it would literally wipe out all life on the Earth.

Something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNtsVP42bOE

Followed by a nuclear winter that never ends where all life dies due to lack of sunlight.

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Strange-Ad1209 t1_ixjnl85 wrote

Well most water came from Asteroids since the ratio for standard hydrogen versus heavy hydrogen in Asteroids matches the ratio in Earth's Water cycle. Comets have a much greater ratio of heavy hydrogen than standard hydrogen so water from comets isn't the source for water in Earth's Oceans/Lakes/Ground Water/Clouds.

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s1ngular1ty2 t1_ixjo1r9 wrote

Yeah and when they landed they probably killed anything in close proximity and also probably altered global temperatures. Do you think that a massive ice rock is any different from a normal rock when traveling at thousands of miles per hour? It goes through the atmosphere in a couple of seconds. It can't melt fast enough. It is just like a normal rock hitting the Earth.

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Strange-Ad1209 t1_ixjqi8i wrote

And all of the impacts that brought water were while the Earth was molten rock anyway. Except for the late term bombardment which heavily cratered the Moon and of course the Earth equally so, most impacts occurred in the first Billion years of Earth's 4 Billion year existence. Life didn't even appear until 2 Billion years ago and that was single cell stuff. Great Permian Mass extinction was 240 Million years ago. Dinosaurs 65 Million years ago. Many Mega Fauna 50,000 years ago from a string of Asteroid strikes like one here in Arizona near Winslow. Then the Usselo Horizon 26,000 years ago largely world wide forest fires from meteor strikes leaving layers of charcoal world wide. Asteroid winters usually only last about 1000 to 2000 years before clearing.

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s1ngular1ty2 t1_ixjqpn0 wrote

Incorrect. Stop trying to tell me things you don't even understand. Life existed almost immediately after the Earth formed. New evidence puts primordial life back to almost the very beginning of the Earth's existence. You should do some more research on the topic.

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live_2_know t1_ixl8qdg wrote

Agreed. Single cell life evolved around 4-3.5 billion years ago when the early earth's atmosphere was devoid of appreciable levels of oxygen. Many of these early life forms died out in the first mass extinction brought on by the evolution of cyanobacteria and the subsequent great oxygenation event of our planet about 2.5 billion years ago. It is always fascinating to remember that the introduction of such a reactive element (oxygen) to our planet in the form of O2 resulted in evolutionary opportunities for energy capture in biological systems by oxidation of food (sugars, amino acids, fats) to generate ATP and GTP. Processes that we humans carry out with respiration. Increased available oxygen dissolved in world oceans and in the atmosphere also lead to an extensive diversification in the minerals present on earth. So the rise of oxygen producing life forms actually terraformed earth to the conditions we see as 'normal' today. We live by exploiting oxidation in a world crafted by oxygen generating life. You can still see cyanobacterial stromatolites in Shark Bay, Australia and imagine a similar scene 2 billion years ago.

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CBeisbol t1_ixjewck wrote

How much?

How fast is it moving?

What's it's temperature?

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Strange-Ad1209 t1_ixjmx5x wrote

Well it would be very difficult for water as a liquid to hit the Earth because exposure to vacuum would immediately cause it to rapidly vaporize then freeze into ice crystals if in shadow or dissociate into free radicals of hydrogen and oxygen if in direct sunlight.

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extrullor44 t1_ixnpq6w wrote

I actually like to imagine no matter in what state the water is when it collides (considering an asteroid-size mass) it would evaporate on contact creating a superheated steam that would expand along with the liquid bedrock splattering from the impact and a huge dust cloud. I don't think that there'd be any significant tsunami though.

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