Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Simulating Impacts of Ice Storms on Forest Ecosystems
Published on: June 30, 2020
The delivery of water by impacts from planetary accretion to present
R Terik Daly1, Peter H Schultz1
1Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, 324 Brook Street, Box 1846, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Abstract:
Dynamical models and observational evidence indicate that water-rich asteroids and comets deliver water to objects throughout the solar system, but the mechanisms by which this water is captured have been unclear. New experiments reveal that impact melts and breccias capture up to 30% of the water carried by carbonaceous chondrite-like projectiles under impact conditions typical of the main asteroid belt impact and the early phases of planet formation. This impactor-derived water resides in two distinct reservoirs: in impact melts and projectile survivors. Impact melt hosts the bulk of the delivered water. Entrapment of water within impact glasses and melt-bearing breccias is therefore a plausible source of hydration features associated with craters on the Moon and elsewhere in the solar system and likely contributed to the early accretion of water during planet formation.
Related Concept Videos
Kepler's Third Law of Planetary Motion
Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion
Polish astronomer Nikolaus Copernicus put forth a theory that stated a heliocentric model for the solar system. According to this heliocentric theory, all the planets, including Earth, orbit the Sun in circular orbits.
On the other hand,...
Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion
While in an elliptical orbit, the total energy of the planet is conserved. Therefore, the planet slows down when it is at apogee and...
Impact of Groups on Groups
States of Water
Water freezes when the intermolecular forces are greater than the kinetic energy. Unlike most other substances, water is less dense in its solid state than in its liquid state. This is because each water molecule can form...
Impact
When particles with different initial velocities collide, they induce deformation by applying equal and opposite impulses. At the point of maximum deformation, the particles move together with...

