European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 22, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday april 22, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17 parisians study computer enhanced giant screen photo of Halley s Comet transmitted to Earth by the european space probe Giotto last month. New theories on comets and the oceans a photo by Bill Boffey new York times scientists from the University of Iowa have proposed a startling new theory of How water accumulates on the Earth and other planets. They believe that Small icy comets never before detected Are hurtling into the Earth s upper atmosphere at a rate of 20 comets a minute releasing water in 100-ton quantities that Over billions of years provided enough water to create the oceans. If their theory is Correct it will require a total reversal of the current scientific understanding of How key geological processes formed the Earth its oceans and other planets. The new theory could also help explain past ice Ages on the Earth the extinction of the dinosaurs the origins of life on Earth and mysterious water and Gas eruptions on the Moon the Iowa scientists assert. They also believe it May explain water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus mysterious dark spokes in the rings of Saturn icy Cliffs on the Moons of uranus and a Host of other Phenomena in the solar system. But if the new theory is ultimately proved wrong As Many experts expect it will be the reputations of those proposing it could be destroyed they would almost inevitably be relegated to the ranks of wild and woolly speculators who propose far out theories that cannot be trusted. It s a bit fantastical said Thomas m. Donahue professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Michigan. I be yet to encounter any expert on atmospheric science that supports these notions. The proposal Calls for behaviour by the atmosphere that is at variance with what we know about the  i m quite persuaded that the cometary hypothesis holds up very Well and is pretty unavoidable countered James a. Van Allen professor of physics at the University of Iowa who is a colleague of those proposing the theory. Van Allen who discovered the Van Allen radiation belts that ring the Earth said the cometary theory shakes people up a Little because it seems so revolutionary adding people who have spent their whole lives working in the Field Are taken Aback to realize that  have overlooked  whatever the ultimate Fate of the theory it illustrates How bold new scientific ideas Are born and evaluated. The Iowa scientists first made some wholly unexpected observations in the atmosphere then explored a Host of possible explanations for the observations and finally settled on one explanation of revolutionary implications the presence of vast numbers of previously unsuspected comets. Now their theory will be subjected to searching criticism by sceptical scientists determined to refute it. The authors of the new theory Are Louis a. Frank a professor of physics John b. Sigwarth a graduate research assistant and John d. Craven a research scientist All members of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa. Their theory and the observations on which it is based will be published in the next Issue of geophysical review letters a journal published by the american geophysical Union a leading professional society of Earth and space scientists. It s a provocative paper that can t be dismissed said Alexander j. Dessler editor of the journal. Dessler also is director of the space science Laboratory at the National aeronautics and space administration s Marshall space flight Center in Huntsville Ala. If the phenomenon is real and the interpretation is Correct Dessler said it is probably the most important finding in space science of the last  he described Frank As a very senior responsible Guy one of the top three or four space scientists in the country if not the whole  but he acknowledged that the bold new theory could make or break Frank s reputation depending on whether it. Holds up or collapses under further scrutiny. If he is right it will have such a dramatic Impact on so Many Fields it will make him famous to All sorts of people who have never heard of him now Dessler said. But if he is wrong Dessler added the next time he shows up hell be dismissed with of yeah he s that Guy who thought he found All those dumb comets but did to " Frank s theory emanated from puzzling observations made from a High Altitude Polar orbiting satellite dynamics explorer 1, starting in 1981. The satellite which reached altitudes up to 14,500 Miles carried an instrument that the Iowa scientists had designed to look Down toward the Earth and measure ultraviolet emissions from the atmosphere. Ordinarily the image of the Earth produced by such an instrument a photometer looks like a Ball of Gas. Half of the Ball is illuminated by the Sun producing what is called Day glow and the other half is swathed in darkness. When the Iowa scientists examined the images. Closely they found Little Black spots or holes that appeared temporarily in the Day glow. The holes were typically 30 Miles in diameter although one was about 90 Miles across and they typically disappeared within three minutes. The Iowa team has identified about 30,000 such holes in some 2,000 hours of viewing from late 1981 to Early 1985. The Iowa scientists first task was to determine whether the holes were real or a spurious effect caused by faulty instruments or other problems. They systematically examined the possibility that sensors had failed that paint flecks from the spacecraft had landed on the camera that electronic transmission of the images Back to Earth had misfired that a computer had developed a glitch or that a statistical aberration in ultraviolet particles could explain the unexpected observations. These and other explanations were ruled out. To our dismay it turned out that the holes were real Frank said. Then the team explored and rejected several possible geophysical explanations for the holes including whether Small meteors were somehow creating them. Ultimately the Iowa scientists concluded that Clouds of water vapor some 180 Miles above the Earth were causing the dark spots. These Clouds blocked the instruments on the satellite from viewing the ultraviolet Day glow emissions that emanated from the atmosphere below the Clouds. The Iowa team concluded that the most plausible explanation was that Small comets made mostly of ice were constantly injecting water into the atmosphere from above. Frank said a typical Comet might be a Ball of ice 40 feet in diameter As it approached the Earth but that it would then break up under gravitational forces and vaporize from sunlight to form a Large Ball of water vapor or Light Fluffy Snow that would penetrate part Way into the atmosphere until finally it was brought to a Stop by the braking action of the air being compressed beneath it. To account for the Large dark spots in the Day glow Frank said each cometary Cloud would have to contain about 100 tons of water. That is not enough to cause a drenching rain Frank said but Over the course of a year it could add one ten thousandth of an Inch of water to the Earth s surface. Over the course of geologic time measured in billions of years Frank said the added water would be truly  if the theory is right it would Force a drastic reversal of current beliefs about the formation of the oceans. The current consensus is that virtually All the water in the oceans was already Here 3.8 billion years ago when the Earth was formed and that this water has very slowly been evaporating away from the Earth Ever since. But the new theory suggests an opposite trend that water was not Here in great quantities at the beginning but has been steadily brought in from outside by cometary impacts a process which continues to add water today. If this is True they re going to have to rewrite All the elementary textbooks Frank said. The Iowa team suggests that such cometary impacts might explain a wide Range of Phenomena. Ice Ages on the Earth for example might be caused by an increase in the rate of cometary impacts producing a Cloud layer in the atmosphere that would reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth s surface. If the sunlight were blocked sharply enough vegetation might die and animals deprived of their food source might disappear thus explaining the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species. Although the Iowa scientists Are not themselves prepared to suggest that the icy comets were responsible for bringing life to the Earth Frank notes that scientists have been searching for years for a plausible mechanism by which life producing organic molecules could have been brought to the Earth from outside. The water vapor Clouds might provide a soft Lander for such organic materials Frank said in contrast to meteors which Burn up in the atmosphere on the Way Down. The Best proof of the theory would be direct observation of the cometary impacts and the ensuing water vapor Clouds to see if they correspond with the holes in the Day glow