Isotopic composition of cometary water and the origin of Earth’s oceans

Abstract

Studies of the water content and isotopic composition of water-rich asteroids and comets are of key interest for understanding the late accretion stage of the Solar System cometary and chondritic materials. The PRobe far-infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) can make an important contribution to solving this long-standing problem by carrying out direct measurements of the D/H ratio in a significant sample of Oort cloud and Kuiper belt comets, sampling the isotopic composition of the present-day outer Solar System. This would allow comparisons between different comet reservoirs, and with inner Solar System measurements in meteorites, as well as searching for correlations with physical parameters, such as hyperactivity, providing quantitative constraints on the dynamical and chemical models of the early Solar System.