He realized that before the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago, an enormous expanse of fine dust grains swirled in a vast sea of hydrogen, helium and oxygen around the sun. Hydrogen and oxygen reacted to make water, creating a disk of basically dust surrounded by water.
He discovered in laboratory research that olivine and other common minerals adsorb an astonishing amount of water – enough to create 10 times the volume of water currently found in Earth's oceans.
"I don't mean to pretend that we've got the entire answer yet," Drake said. "But for me it's a no-brainer. At least some, if not most, of Earth's water had to come from adsorption of water onto grains before the planet ever formed."
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