The gases that formed Earth’s atmosphere, and possibly its oceans, did not originate from within the planet but from outer space, suggests a research by scientists from the University of Houston and University of Manchester.

The study, published in the journal Science, indicates that previous images of Earth having gigantic volcanoes emitting different gases into the atmosphere will need to be reconsidered.

According to the researchers, the long-standing belief that the planet’s earliest atmosphere came from volcanoes must be disregarded.

With the use of advanced analytical techniques, Dr Martin Cassidy, Professor Chris Ballentine and Dr Greg Holland examined volcanic gases to discover new evidence.

The study was financed by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

“We found a clear meteorite signature in volcanic gases”, stated Dr Greg Holland, head scientist of the project.

"From that we now know that the volcanic gases could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth's atmosphere. Therefore the atmosphere and oceans must have come from somewhere else, possibly from a late bombardment of gas and water rich materials similar to comets”.

“Until now, no one has had instruments capable of looking for these subtle signatures in samples from inside the Earth -- but now we can do exactly that”, he added.

The techniques they used allowed the researchers to measure small amounts of inert volcanic trace gases Xenon and Krypton, which showed an isotopic ‘fingerprint’ similar to that of meteorites.

The research is the first to describe the exact composition of Krypton found in the mantle of the Earth.

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