Updated

Researchers at the University of New Mexico reported in Nature Geoscience on November 12, 2026 that rocky pebbles reacting with hydrogen at extreme heat can produce water within minutes. The study was led by graduate student Susmita Garai with Zachary Sharp and Peter Olson, and ScienceDaily carried the report. The researchers suggest such reactions could have generated hundreds of oceans' worth of water during Earth's formation, implying water may be a natural part of how rocky planets form. In experiments, the team heated silicate rock samples to 1,200 to 1,400 degrees Celsius in flowing hydrogen, with runs lasting 15 minutes to three hours. Almost 80% of the iron oxide turned into metallic iron, releasing water vapor, while helium produced no such reaction. The authors extrapolated these results to the early Earth, where a hydrogen-rich atmosphere could have formed as pebbles accreted. The article presents this as a route to Earth's water that does not depend solely on icy material from the outer solar system, and it suggests similar processes could make water more common on rocky planets elsewhere, a possibility ScienceDaily reported rather than established.