Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 4, 2014

B2

THE WORLD AROUND US

Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 4, 2014 


The Water in Your Bottle Might Be Older Than the Sun

 
Up to half of the water on Earth is likely older 
than the solar system itself, University of Michigan 
astronomers theorize.

 The researchers’ work, published in the current 
issue of Science, helps to settle a debate about just 
how far back in galactic history our planet and our 
solar system’s water formed. Were the molecules 
in comet ices and terrestrial oceans born with the 
system itself—in the planet-forming disk of dust 
and gas that circled the young sun 4.6 billion years 
ago? Or did the water originate even earlier, in the 
cold, ancient molecular cloud that spawned the Sun 
and that planet-forming disk?

 Between 30 and 50 percent came from the 
molecular cloud, says Ilse Cleeves, an astronomy 
Ph.D. student in the U-M College of Literature, 
Science and the Arts. That would make it roughly a 
million years older than the solar system.

 To arrive at that estimate, Cleeves and Ted 
Bergin, a professor of astronomy, simulated the 
chemistry that went on as our solar system formed. 
They focused on the ratio of two slightly different 
varieties of water: the common kind and a heavier 
version. Today, comets and Earth’s oceans hold 
particular ratios of heavy water—higher ratios than 
the Sun contains.

 “Chemistry tells us that Earth received a 
contribution of water from some source that was 
very cold, only tens of degrees above absolute zero; 
while the Sun, being substantially hotter, has erased 
this deuterium, or heavy water, fingerprint,” Bergin 
said.

 To start their solar system simulation, the 
scientists wound back the clock and zeroed out the 
heavy water. They hit “go” and waited to see if eons 
of solar system formation could lead to the ratios we 
see today on Earth and in comets.

 “We let the chemistry evolve for a million years—
the typical lifetime of a planet-forming disk—and 
we found that chemical processes in the disk were 
inefficient at making heavy water throughout the 
solar system,” Bergin explained. “What this implies 
is that if the planetary disk didn’t make the water, 
it inherited it. Consequently, some fraction of the 
water in our solar system pre-dates the Sun.”

 All life on Earth depends on water. Understanding 
when and where it came from can help scientists 
estimate how abundant water might be throughout 
the galaxy.

 “The implications of these findings are pretty 
exciting,” Cleeves said. “If water formation had 
been a local process that occurs in individual stellar 
systems, the amount of water and other important 
chemical ingredients necessary for the formation of 
life might vary from system to system. But because 
some of the chemically rich ices from the molecular 
cloud are directly inherited, young planetary 
systems have access to these important ingredients.

 “Based on our simulations and our growing 
astronomical understanding,” Bergin added, “the 
formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen 
atoms is a ubiquitous component of the early stages 
of stellar birth. It is this water, which we know 
from astronomical observations forms at only 10 
degrees above absolute zero—before the birth of 
the star—that is provided to nascent stellar systems 
everywhere.”

*******

 

 TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OCTOBER 8th. An 
eclipse of the Moon will be visible locally during 
the night of October 7-8. The good news is that the 
eclipse will be total—always an exciting sight. The 
bad news is that it’ll occur between 1:15 and 5:45 
a.m., with the maximum of totality at 3:54 a.m. Not 
the best time for Moon-viewing, but just in case 
you’re up…

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com 


SAVING WATER AND LIVING BETTER By Christopher Nyerges


Water conserv-
ation is good 
all the time, 
especially 
for anyone 
living here in 
Los Angeles 
County. After 
all, there are far 
too many of us 
living here in 
this wonderful 
climate which is 
a coastal desert 
plain. That’s right – we live in a desert! That’s why 
most of our water is imported from hundreds of 
miles away. 

 Water conservation makes sense. It’s the way we 
should be living all the time, not just when we’re 
forced to by circumstances. 

But the suggestion to just stop watering trees 
and shrubs and plants and let them die off is not 
a viable suggestion. Consider the great mystery 
of trees and the wonderful things they do. They 
draw water up to the surface with their deep roots. 
They constantly transpire water vapour into the 
surrounding environment, meaning, it is always 
cooler around trees and other plants can live 
more readily than in a barren wasteland. Due to 
this effect of transpiration, trees also create little 
microclimates – they create weather – and even 
localized wind can be created by the updraft of 
water vapour from trees. We do NOT want to just 
let our trees die off for the short-sighted goal of 
“saving water.” 

 Through water conservation and water-saving 
efforts, the land so worked can be cooler when it is 
hotter and drier elsewhere, and to be more fruitful 
from an ecological point of view. 

 For example, all household water (minus the 
toilet) can be easily recycled back into the yard to 
water the garden, the trees, and even the drought-
tolerant plants. 

 Assuming the lay of your land is somewhat 
downhill, you can disconnect the washing 
machine drain pipe, connect a long hose and 
let the water drain to your yard or garden. (Buy 
biodegradable soaps). One load of wash and 
rinse can use 30 plus gallons, depending on your 
system. All that water can wash your clothes, and 
feed your yard. 

 I have always disconnected bath tub lines and 
let the water drain into the yard. This is simple 
plumbing which most folks should be able to do in 
a few hours. Building and Safety takes a dim view 
of these practices since they don’t want people 
breeding mosquitoes for the entire neighborhood, 
so give careful thought to how you do this, and 
make sure your system doesn’t become a problem. 

 Oh, I just remembered: all the officials 
constantly declare that we should take showers 
since “showers use less water.” Really? Have you 
ever actually measured the amount of water you 
use in a shower? How long do you stay in there? If 
you’re disciplined, you could take a water-efficient 
shower, and let that water flow into the yard. I have 
actually taken solar showers in the back yard, and 
the water all went to the grapefruit tree. 

 But typically, I take baths. I don’t fill up the 
entire tub and then get in. Rather, I turn on the 
hot water, get in, and add a few small clothes items 
that I always wash by hand, thus relieving the load 
on the washing machine. Plus, it is much healthier 
to sit in the tub a bit and to scrub, rather than to 
race through the process. When I am done with 
the bath, I save some water in one-gallon jugs and 
use recycle it by using it to flush the water. I let the 
remaining water drain out into my garden. I am 
using that water and getting much more out of it, 
and keeping my landscape alive and thriving and 
producing water-vapor-fillled oxygen. 

For dishwater, you can simply take the dish basin 
out into your yard and empty it on trees, roses, 
garden, etc. All the little food scraps will actually 
be a sort of fertilizer for the plants. 

 Be a part of the solution. Recycle all your water 
and keep your oxygen-producing plants alive. 

 I do agree with DWP that a lawn is pointless. 
Plant succulents, cactus, fruit trees – things that 
are useful and don’t require excessive water. Some 
good and useful drought-tolerant plants include 
Peruvian mint, wandering Jew, New Zealand 
spinach, jade, aloes, prickly pear cactus, and 
many, many others. 

 We can live here in this desert and we can live 
here well. We just need to adapt to the desert, 
rather than arrogantly thinking that the desert 
should adapt to us. 

 

 
[Nyerges’ latest book, “Self-Sufficient Home,” which 
includes a chapter on water-saving methods, will 
be available everywhere in September. He can be 
reached at www.ChristopherNyerges.com, or Box 
41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041. WTI’s water saving 
class can be seen on-line at www.wtinc.info]