A new study has revealed that Earth's water is older than the sun by a million years and may also be flowing abundantly in other planets.
Researchers believe that water is not unique to our planet alone and its life giving qualities may be part of the stuff that the universe is made of.
"If our sun's formation was typical, interstellar ices-including water - are likely common ingredients present during the formation of planetary systems," says IIsedore Cleeves, a lead study author and doctoral student at the University of Michigan.
According to the study, which was published in the Journal Science on Friday, there is a high probability that other life forms are existing in exoplanets in deep space far beyond our solar system.
Scientist say the discovery of the origins of water on earth puts us in a better position to understand and study the conditions and environments that nurture's life and its existence in space.
"By identifying the ancient heritage of Earth's water, we can see that the way in which our solar system was formed will not be unique, and that exoplanets will form in environments with abundance of water," says Tim Harries from the University of Exeter.
According to Harries, "We know that waters is vital for the evolution of life on Earth, but it was possible that Earth's water originated in the specific conditions of the early solar system, and that those circumstances might occur infrequently else where."
The group of scientists from across the world studied hydrogen isotopes using computer models, comparing its ratios over a specific period.
They discovered that some water in the oceans, lunar craters, meteorites, comets and some that we drink actually predate the formation of our solar system.
"The implication of these findings is that some water must have been inherited from the sun's birth environment, and thus pre-date the sun itself," says Cleeves.
