All the world's oceans covering 70 percent of the Earth flooded the planet much earlier than previously thought, or about 14 million years after the solar system was formed, said scientists.

A new study about the ancient origin of the Earth's water posits that all the water that ever existed today, especially the oceans, was always here and didn't develop later on as previously believed.

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One of the first theories as to how water came to be says early Earth was originally a dry planet bombarded by wet comets and asteroids carrying water. Horst Marschall, a geologist and the study's co-author, however, said these collisions made it impossible for water to survive since the massive blasts from the explosions would have instantly evaporated any water vapor or flung water particles into space.

Another theory involves primitive types of meteorites called "carbonaceous chondrites" containing water that also bombarded the Earth\. These meteorites originated from the same space dust and grit that formed the Sun 4.6 billion years ago or before the planets came into existence.

Using two stable isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and hydrogen, scientists measured the ratio of these two elements also present in carbonaceous chondrites. They obtained these samples from fragments of asteroid 4-Vesta estimated to have formed 14 million years after the birth of the solar system.

The results yielded a similar hydrogen isotopic composition as the 4-Vesta asteroid. This suggests carbonaceous chondrite meteorites that crashed into Earth were most likely the carriers of the Earth's first water.

During those early stages of the solar system, ancient Earth was considered a "Blue Planet"  because of its abundant water.

This study about the ancient origin of Earth's water is published in the journal, Science. 

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