Scientists from the United States have discovered an isotopic analogue of Earth's water in the emissions of comet Pons-Brooks

American planetary scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered elements in the ejecta of comet Pons-Brooks that are an isotope of water on the surface of the planet Earth. On August 8, astronomers wrote about this in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

"Our analysis of the proportions of ordinary and semi-heavy water in the gas tail of Comet Pons-Brooks indicated that its icy core consists of water with an unusually low proportion of deuterium for other comets," the study says.

According to the article, the scientists measured the proportions of ordinary water (H2O), "semi-heavy water" (HDO) and alcohol methanol. This helped to estimate the amount of deuterium in the comet's interior. The result showed that in the depths of Pons-Brooks there is an almost "terrestrial" amount of deuterium — about 170 atoms of heavy hydrogen per million atoms of ordinary hydrogen.

This study can be considered proof of the "cosmic" origin of water, namely, its "delivery" to the Earth's surface through the contact of comets with the Earth.

Earlier, on July 22, a team of Russian scientists from the New Milky Way project (Astroverts farm, Arkhyz) on the night of July 17-18, 2025, discovered a flash of a previously unknown star, whose brightness increased by +12 magnitudes, in the area of the border of three constellations: Snake, Shield and Eagle. It is noted that using the 2.5-meter telescope of the Caucasian Mountain Observatory of the Moscow State University Traffic Police, a spectrum was obtained that confirmed that this flare is a classic nova star.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.