Prof. Allona Vazan, from the Department of Natural Sciences and a researcher at the Open University’s Astrophysics Research Center (ARCO), is involved in a groundbreaking study in the prestigious journal Nature.
Her research challenges the prevailing theory that planetary water originates from external sources. Instead, Prof. Vazan and her colleagues demonstrate that water can form internally—from dry materials such as rock and gas—within planetary cores.
This discovery reveals that even planets that formed dry can quickly and efficiently become water-rich, blurring the distinction between planetary types.