Picture all of Earth’s oceans, which cover about 70% of the planet and are mostly made of hydrogen. Now multiply that by nine. That may be the amount of hydrogen in Earth’s core, possibly making it the planet’s largest hydrogen reservoir, researchers recently estimated.And nine hydrogen “oceans” is the low end of their calculation; there could be as much as 45 oceans’ worth of hydrogen locked in the core. Put another way, hydrogen may make up roughly 0.36% to 0.7% of Earth’s total core weight, scientists reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. This suggests that Earth acquired most of its water — the planet’s main source of hydrogen — as the planet formed, rather than later through comet impacts that would have left water on the planet’s surface as some scientists have suggested, said lead study author Dongyang Huang, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University.“Earth’s core would store most of the water in the first million years of Earth’s history,” Huang told CNN in an email. Next in water abundance is the mantle and crust. “The surface — where life resides — contains the least,” he said.AdvertisementAdvertisementMore than 4.6 billion years ago, rocks, gas and dust around our sun collided to form a young planet. Over time, these collision …
