A domain rich in fluid inclusions within impact melt rock from the Popigai impact structure, Russia. Image Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute/Martin Schmieder

The debate about how Earth and other planetary bodies got enriched in water is still ongoing.
New experiments conducted by Terik Daly and Peter Schultz suggest impact melts and, to a lesser extent, impacting projectiles, may have served as a trap for abundant water delivered to the planets from outer space.

The delivery of water by impacts from planetary accretion to present