Human Physiology in Extreme Environments

2014

Preface

This book deals with humans in extreme environments. It originated from talks and field studies with my academic teacher Prof. K. Kirsch in the gold mines of Tarkwa in Ghana’s tropical rain forest more than 20 years ago. The contents of the book are based on lectures and seminars to medical students at the Institute of Physiology at the Free University of Berlin¹ at the beginning of the 1980s. Meanwhile, additional courses were given with support of the Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienst (DAAD, Germany) and the State Administration of Foreign Experts (China) at the Faculdad de Medicina de Chile (Santiago, Chile) and at the Key Laboratory for Space Biosciences and Biotechnology at the Northwestern Polytechnical University (Xi’an, China), respectively. Our experience is based on numerous studies in the laboratory and the field, including studies conducted in Africa, North and South America, Antarctica, and in space.

Several different kinds of books on this topic have been published during the last decades [1–3]. However, some cover only one topic, such as Edholm’s Man: Hot and Cold [1]. Other excellent books are extremely comprehensive, such as volumes I/II of the Handbook of Physiology: Environmental Physiology [4], Pandolf’s Human performance physiology and environmental medicine at terrestrial extremes [5], or Auerbach’s outstanding handbook Wilderness Medicine [6]. Therefore, we felt that the present book should be as broad as possible and as focused as necessary [7],² aiming primarily at medical students and interested laymen. Thus, our work follows most closely of Edgar Folk’s classical Textbook of Environmental Physiology in its second edition [8] or more recently the publications by Piantadosi [9] The biology of human survival life and death in extreme environments and Cheung’s Advanced environmental exercise physiology [10]. However, we thought that for an initial introduction to the topic some additional aspects should be addressed such as evolutionary, anthropological, and methodological issues.

In an era when knowledge is expanding at an ever-increasing pace and instruction increasingly takes place in the form of modules that actually demand a considerable basis of theoretical knowledge, an integrative approach to observing fundamental physiological processes is even more critical to avoid getting lost in details and losing sight of the larger picture. This integrative approach, a working philosophy of not relying on armchair postulation [11], but instead testing and verifying laboratory results in the field, as well as the research on humans in extreme environments, is not new for us in Berlin. One hundred years ago, Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) was already a key figure in the history of research on the physiology of humans in extreme environments (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Nathan Zuntz (1847-1920) at his office in Berlin at the Königlich Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule around 1915. Courtesy Institute of Physiology, Charité University Medicine Berlin.

His books Höhenklima und Bergwanderungen in ihrer Wirkung auf den Menschen (The Effect of High-Altitude Climate and Mountain Hiking on Human Beings) [12] as well as Studien zu einer Physiologie des Marsches (Studies on the Physiology of Marching) [13] must be considered classic publications in the history of applied physiological sciences and on a par with Paul Bert’s La pression barométrique (Barometric pressure) [14] and Adolph’s Man in the Desert [11].³ Adolph (1895-1986) led the Rochester Desert Unit in the United States and conducted several studies of water requirements and thermoregulation in humans under contract with the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the United States in close cooperation with the famous Harvard Fatigue Laboratory [19]. The latter was conceived by Lawrence J. Henderson in 1926, started operating in the fall of 1927 under the directorate of David Bruce Dill, and became a leading center of human adaptation to extreme environments dealing with exercise, exhaustion, heat, cold, and high altitude adaptation [20]. Otto Gauer (1907-1979) (Figure 2), the famous gravitational physiologist and former director of the Institute of Physiology of Berlin, was fascinated by this kind of research.

Figure 2 Otto Gauer (1909-1979) at the age of 65 in Berlin. Courtesy Institute of Physiology, Charité University Medicine Berlin.

He obviously developed a deep familiarity with it, especially during his time at Brooks Air Force Base in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s, where he personally met and worked with members of these two important research schools and laboratories. This collaboration definitely paved his way to studies of humans in extreme environments (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Certificate verifying that Otto Gauer is an honorary member of the gravitational stress panel dated January 11, 1965. Courtesy Institute of Physiology, Charité University Medicine Berlin.

Gauer taught the scholars K. Kirsch (1938-) and L. Röcker (1940-) in Berlin, who continued and broadened this research, especially in the fields of cardiovascular, blood, exercise, and space physiology. This kind of research has been and remains primarily a domain of English-language scholarship, as recently documented by Tipton’s (History of) Exercise Physiology [17].

In Germany, this field of study does not enjoy the same level of recognition among physiologists, in spite of the fact that the research field extreme environments is distinguished by an entertainment value that should not be discounted. This is no small advantage, even, or perhaps especially, with regard to university-level education. The lack of recognition may result from the fact that research on human adaptation to extreme environments is often inherently limited to descriptive work, without the possibility of providing concrete explanations. What some fail to recognize, however, is that over the long term, research that initially provided purely descriptive observations of humans under extreme conditions has since resulted in significant new approaches and ways of thinking that are of essential importance to research. One outstanding current example of this process is the research on non-osmotic storage of Na+, primarily in the skin, conducted as a part of the investigations into the effects of long-term isolation on humans to prepare for space missions [21]. Furthermore, working in extreme environments, especially when conducting physiological studies in the field, usually requires high-performance, miniaturized, noninvasive, and easy-to-use devices. The potential applications for such devices are not limited to extreme environments; rather, they offer great utility in the many various everyday applications on earth. For several decades, our working group has devoted considerable attention to the development of miniaturized, noninvasive tools and procedures for human physiological measurements in close cooperation with companies active in this field. These technological developments are possible only thanks to substantial and, most importantly, continuous financial support provided to our research projects by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, German Aerospace Center) in Bonn-Oberkassel, namely Dr. P. Preu, Prof. G. Ruyters, Dr. P. Gräf, and Dr. H.-U. Hoffmann. We must also not forget that it was small to mid-sized industrial firms as well as major corporations that created the conditions for this research institution to continue its work over the long-term in Berlin by establishing and funding the Nathan Zuntz Professorship for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2003 and currently the Nathan-Zuntz-Förderkreis e.V. In addition, we received financial support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technologische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, Eschborn) and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, Bonn).

In summary, this book was enabled by work done in the following three major areas: (i) classical education and teaching at a major German university, including the history of science; (ii) planning, implementation, and evaluation of our own research in human physiology under sometimes extreme conditions in the field and the laboratory, including research conducted with German and international partners; and (iii) close cooperation with small and mid-sized corporations in planning, developing, and producing new tools and processes. Therefore, some of the material in following chapters is based on or complied from previous manuscripts or publications that have been published in seminar handouts (scripts) of regular courses given at the Charité, published separately in journals, derived from works on guidelines by expert councils, or have been the essence of long-lasting research groups, such as the DFG Research Group 533 as well as material from classical text [22–24] and handbook chapters [25,26] written by the authors in previous years.

Finally, this book would not have been possible without the continuous support of L. Roecker and K. Kirsch and my scientific team members at the Department, namely Dr. O. Opatz, Dr. A. Stahn, and Dr. M. Steinach, co-authors of some chapters, and Dr. A. Werner, S. Thomas, as well as the large technical support by B. Bünsch, B. Himmelsbach, E. Hofmann, F. Kern, and finally A. Sommer, who prepared with great long-lasting enthusiasm the illustrations for this book. Thanks to all of them.

References

[1] Edholm OG. Man, hot and cold. London: E. Arnold; 1978.

[2] Sloan A. Man in extreme environments. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas; 1979.

[3] Kamler K. Surviving the extremes: a doctor’s journey to the limits of human endurance. New York: St. Martins Press; 2004.

[4] Fregly MJ, Blatteis CM, eds. Environmental physiology. Oxford, New York:: Oxford University Press; 1996.

[5] Pandolf KB, Sawka MN, Gonzalez RR. Human performance physiology and environmental medicine at terrestrial extremes. Indianapolis, IL: Brown & Benchmark; 1988.

[6] Auerbach PS, ed. Wilderness medicine. Philadelphia: Mosby Elsevier; 2007.

[7] Schneider F. Arnold Schönberg: Stil und Gedanke. Leipzig: Reclam Verlag; 1989.

[8] Folk GE. Textbook of environmental physiology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger; 1974.

[9] Piantadosi CA. The biology of human survival life and death in extreme environments. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press; 2003.

[10] Cheung SS. Advanced environmental exercise physiology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; 2010.

[11] Adolph EF. Physiology of man in the desert. (Reprint 1969) New York: Hafner Publishing Company; 1947.

[12] Zuntz N, Loewy A, Müller F, Caspari W. Höhenklima und Bergwanderungen. Berlin, Leipzig, Wien, Stuttgart: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong; 1906.

[13] Zuntz N, Schumburg W. Studien zur Physiologie des Marsches. Berlin: Verlag von August Hirschwald; 1901.

[14] Bert P. Pression barometrique. Paris: Masson; 1878.

[15] Fishman A, Richards DW, eds. Circulation of the blood—men and ideas. New York: Oxford University Press; 1964.

[16] West JB. High life: a history of high-altitude physiology and medicine. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press; 1998.

[17] Tipton CM. Exercise physiology. People and ideas. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press; 2001.

[18] Gunga H-C. Nathan Zuntz. His life and work in the fields of high altitude physiology and aviation medicine. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Academic Press; 2009.

[19] Horvath SM, Horvath EC. The Harvard fatigue laboratory. Its history and contributions. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.; 1973.

[20] Folk GE. The Harvard fatigue laboratory: contributions to World War II. Adv Physiol Educ. 2010;34:119–127.

[21] Titze J, Machnik A. Sodium sensing in the interstitium and relationship to hypertension. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 2010;19:385–392.

[22] Hierholzer K, Schmidt RF. Pathophysiologie des Menschen. Weinheim: VCH; 1991.

[23] Klinke R, Pape HC, Silbernagl S, eds. Lehrbuch der Physiologie. 5th ed. Stuttgart, New York: Thieme; 2005.

[24] Speckmann E.-J., Hescheler J, Köhling R, Rintelen H, eds. Physiologie. München, Jena: Elsevier, Urban & Fischer Verlag; 2013.

[25] Ley W, Wittmann K, Hallmann W, eds. Handbook of space technology. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley and Sons; 2009.

[26] Preedy VR, ed. Handbook of anthropometry. Physical measures of human form in health and disease. Berlin: Springer; 2012.

¹ In 2003 the Medical Faculty of the Free University of Berlin and the former Medical Faculty of the Humboldt University, the Charité, were unified under the common name Charité University Medicine Berlin.

² It would seem that Arnold Schönberg faced similar problems when he tried to summarize the historical and aesthetic developments of music in the last centuries, guided by the captivating principle that a universal education should be another virtue of the specialist [7, p. 7].

³ For further details, please compare Refs. [15–18].

Chapter 1

Introduction

Hanns-Christian Gunga    Professor, Center for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments, Institute of Physiology, CharitéCrossOver (CCO), Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Abstract

This chapter discusses the evolution of the universe, the galaxies, and the Earth. It describes the origin and distribution of chemical elements in the universe, as well as the physical and chemical components that seem to be important for the evolution of life on Earth. Finally, the chapter considers the origins of primates and humans.

Keywords

Universe

Chemical evolution

Life on Earth

Anthropology

Early humans

1.1 Universe

According to latest calculations, the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years [1]. It probably came into existence by the Big Bang. The presence of possible antecedent universes is beyond our knowledge. Immediately after the Big Bang, in the so-called Planck Epoch, the four presently known elemental forces—gravitation, strong and weak nuclear energy, and electromagnetism—began to separate, and an explosive inflation of the universe ensued. Thereafter, electrons, quarks, and radiation developed, and about 10− 5 s after the Big Bang the first protons and neutrons came into existence. In the course of this first second after the Big Bang and the subsequent cooling processes due to the explosive inflation of the universe, known matter originated. Presumably, in addition, matter and energy forms were created that currently still elude our access and exact description (Figure 1.1). The important fact is that this fraction of matter and these energy forms constitute the predominant part in the universe. According to recent calculations, merely 4% of the mass of the universe can be allotted to the matter that we can see and analyze, the so-called baryonic matter, which represents the construction material of atoms, 73% being constituted by dark energy on the one hand and 23% by dark matter on the other hand, leaving unclear what this matter actually consists of [2]. One should be at least aware of this fact when in later chapters the chemical composition of the human body will be discussed in detail. Among these particles of hypothetic matter are the so-called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) [3]. These are heavy, inert particles that hardly interchange with the visible world as we see it. According to recent concepts, even more complex super-WIMP structures are supposed to exist in this exotic world of dark matter possessing its own forms of power and light not perceptible by us. According to the concepts of theoretical physicists and astronomers, these exotic particle forms originated immediately after the Big Bang, only to be partly destroyed 1 ns afterwards by clashes of particles of dark matter. Only after further expansion, and thus cooling of the universe (age of the universe > 10 ns), the amount of WIMPs now calculated theoretically remained in the universe because, due to too low temperature and density, no new WIMPs could be formed in the universe and because the probability of clashes of dark matter among each other gradually decreased drastically [2]. Approximately three minutes after the Big Bang, the first elements, hydrogen and helium, came into existence, and in the following 10,000 years an almost equal distribution of matter and energy in the universe occurred. Until today, the universe has consisted predominantly of these two elements—92.9% hydrogen and 6.9% helium—and the remaining known elements in the universe, the origination of which shall be described in detail later, amount to merely 0.2% of the atoms in the universe (Table 1.1). Due to slight differences in the distribution of the atoms, about 300,000 years later accumulations of matter, and then the first stars appeared. As far as we know right now, the oldest object in the universe to be verified is a quasar aged 13 billion years [5] (Figure 1.1). According to our current state of knowledge, the first galaxies were formed approximately 3-5 billion years after the Big Bang. The unequal distribution of galaxies in the universe, generated by extremely small differences in density in the distribution of matter directly after the Big Bang in the inflationary state of the universe, is still perceptible by the differences in temperature. The temperature differences were recently impressively demonstrated [6] (Figure 1.2). The differences found in the distribution of temperatures are only around < 0.0002 K, but they allow conclusions regarding the mass differences in the early universe and enable a hypothesized frozen image of the state of the universe directly after its formation following the Big Bang.

Figure 1.1 Emergence of the universe from the Planck-Epoch 13 billion years ago; its sudden explosive inflation, and the forming of electrons, quarks, protons, neutrons, hydrogen, helium, and mass concentrations that became the first stars and galaxies until today.

Table 1.1

Atoms in the Universe—Percent atom abundance of most abundant atoms in the Universe.

(Adapted from [4])

Figure 1.2 The Cosmic Microwave Background temperature fluctuations. The image is a Mollweide projection of the temperature variations over the celestial sphere. The average temperature is 2.275 K, and the colors represent the tiny temperature fluctuations. Red regions are warmer and blue regions are colder by about 0.0002°K. (Adapted from http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/101080) [7].

1.2 Galaxies

First, there were no galaxies as we know them now as more or less disc-shaped assemblies of stars, but as loose clouds of galaxies. About 11 billion years ago, gravity began to form the first galaxies as we know them today (Figure 1.1). With more and more mass accumulation, especially toward the center of a galaxy, a black hole is created where even light cannot escape. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has such a super massive black hole today. This structure is not fixed and cannot be seen alone. Instead, galaxies in themselves form clusters, and these clusters even form bigger super clusters, which again are concentrated into filaments that connect the different super clusters, forming a kind of gigantic web cluster. For a long time an open question had been what keeps galaxies from falling apart, forming instead those clusters and super clusters that keep them together. Today, astronomers are convinced it is the dark matter, which, as mentioned above, is matter that exists approximately six times more often in the universe than that baryonic matter that we know. Indirect hints to the existence of matter have come from so-called gravitational lenses that deviate light on its way through the universe. However, the dark matter has a probably even stronger counterpart, the dark energy in the universe, an unknown force that pulls the galaxies, clusters, and other structures apart from each other. For the existence of the Earth and ourselves, it is crucial to recognize that our solar system is actually placed in a very special part of our own galaxy. We are far enough away from the center of the Milky Way with its black hole and highly radioactive zones—an environment that makes life forms as we know them impossible—and not too far away from the center so that we have a fairly stable place in the outer part of the galaxy, the so-called habitable zone of the galaxy, circulating around the center in about 225-250 million years, the cosmic or galactic year [8–10].

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a medium-sized spiral galaxy in the galaxy cluster Local Group. It has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years,¹ and consists of approximately 200 billion fixed stars like our own sun [11–13]. A fixed star of the size of our sun produces its energy by nuclear fusion processes. At about 5 million Kelvin, four hydrogen atoms (⁴H), also called protons (¹H), fuse to one helium atom (⁴He), a very stable nucleus (alpha particle) with two protons and two neutrons. Each second a star like our sun, which has 1.3 million times the volume of the Earth, converts about 600 million tons of hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei, thereby dissipating heat, which enables life on Earth, but losing as well about 4 million tons of mass per second. As intermediate products of this nuclear fusion process, the elements deuterium (²H) and helium 3 (³He) also originate.² The hydrogen supplies in our sun should suffice for approximately another 5 billion years (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/sun/ [15]; http://solar-center.stanford.edu/about/ [16]). In the distant future, when almost all of the hydrogen in the nucleus of the sun has been transformed into helium, the temperature in the nucleus of the sun will increase to more than 100 million Kelvin. New nuclear fusion processes will arise, leading to the generation of new elements that should turn out to be particularly significant for the creation of life, because from the fusion of three ⁴He atoms the element carbonate (¹²C) originates, and from the fusion of ¹²C and ⁴He in the nucleus of the sun, the element oxygen (¹⁶O), which is vitally important for us, originates [17]. During these nuclear processes, the sun swells, forming a so-called red giant. In the last act, the red giant explosively ejects its hydrogen-rich external shell, which is enriched with elements such as oxygen and carbon, and in the first instance becomes a white dwarf then, after further cooling, a black dwarf. Whether a star develops within its cosmologic life story to become a red dwarf, a white dwarf, a neutron star, a supernova, or even a black hole depends essentially on its mass. In a schematic representation, Figure 1.3 shows these possible actions in the history of development of a star, depending on its mass.

Figure 1.3 The life cycle of stars with a similar or larger mass as our sun. Depending on the mass of the object ( M  ~ sun mass) several pathways can be predicted. (Adapted from http://marvin.sn.schule.de/~erzkoll/projekte/astro1/sterne.html) [18].

1.3 Planetary System

Our own sun and planetary system were formed about 4.56 billion years ago [19]. According to the 2006 findings, Pluto is no longer counted among the planets of our solar system, which contains eight planets and at least two larger belts, the Asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter and the Kuiper Belt beyond the planet Neptune (Figure 1.4). The heliopause, in general agreement the influence of the gravity of the sun, has been postulated as the outermost limit of our solar system, but this still needs to be verified. The heliopause lies about 23 billion kilometers away from the sun [20] and according to recent data on August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 had crossed this heliopause and entered interstellar space, making it the first spacecraft to do so. It is necessary to record at this point that objects at the edge of this heliopause, such as, for example, Oort’s cloud (Figure 1.5), probably exerted a decisive influence on the development of life on Earth (see Section 1.4). At the same time, our solar system is not spatially constant, but the sun rather moves, together with its planets, moons, and comets, as a cosmic unit toward the star Vega in the Lyra at a velocity of approx. 20 km/s (Figure 1.6) (adapted from http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Stars/Lyra.htm) [22].

Figure 1.4 Our solar system with its eight planets, the Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the Kuiper belt in the outer solar system. According to recent findings, icy comets that hit the Earth frequently during its early phase brought the water on Earth and originate from this Kuiper belt (not in scale).

Figure 1.5 The dimensions of the Oort cloud, which is the major source of icy comets in our solar system [ 21 ].

Figure 1.6 The solar system is moving with a velocity of 20 km/s on a trajectory toward Vega in the Lyra.

1.4 Earth-Moon System

The Earth, in comparison to other planets of our solar system, is accompanied by a relatively large Moon. For the development of life on Earth, the importance of the Earth-Moon system is not always fully recognized [23]. Therefore its presumable origin and impact on life on Earth will be briefly discussed.

1.4.1 Origin of the Earth-Moon System

For about 100 years this question has been intensively discussed, and the main hypotheses presented included: fission from the Earth, capture, co-accretion, and a giant impact [23,24]. Today, the giant impact hypothesis is the most accepted among scientists because it can explain concomitantly several curiosities of the Earth-Moon system (see below) [25], although recently some doubts have been raised about this theory again [26].

1.4.1.1 Fission Hypothesis

George Darwin (1845-1912) proposed this hypothesis in 1879 [27]. He thought that the ancient Proto-Earth ejected a piece of its mass by an accelerated rotation approximately 4.5 billion years ago. It was assumed that the scar of this event on our planet would be the Pacific Ocean. However, this theory has been disproven because (i) with an age of 200 million years, the oceanic crust of the Earth is much too young in comparison to the Moon’s crust, which is several billion years old, based on the analysis of material from the APOLLO mission; and (ii) this hypothesis also cannot explain the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system.

1.4.1.2 Lunar Capture Hypothesis

This hypothesis assumes that the Moon was captured by the gravitational field of the Earth. The strongest argument against this theory is the fact that the Earth and Moon share almost identical oxygen isotope ratios [23,24,28]. Furthermore, such a close encounter in the early phase of our solar system would more likely lead to a collision or an alteration of the trajectory, which would move the Moon forever away from the Earth. This hypothesis would require an extremely dense atmosphere around the Proto-Earth, which could have slowed down the velocity of the Moon, altering its trajectory into one orbiting around the Earth.

1.4.1.3 Co-accretion Hypothesis

This hypothesis assumes that Earth and Moon originated together from the primordial accretion disk of the solar system [23]. However, this theory cannot explain the relatively small iron core of the Moon (25% of its radius) as compared to the Earth (50%) [24,29].

1.4.1.4 Giant Impact Hypothesis

This hypothesis assumes that the Moon derives from a giant collision of a Mars-like protoplanet with the proto-Earth during the early accretional phase of the solar system. This theory can explain (i) the relatively small iron core of the Moon and the large one of the Earth because during the collision process, iron material from the core of the Moon was shifted/injected to the Earth’s core; (ii) the similar oxygen isotopes on Earth and Moon; (iii) possibly the angular momentum; and (iv) the lack of volatiles in the lunar samples due to the enormous energy of the collision, which completely evaporated the material; this would require an initially molten Moon, although some researchers argue that this depletion of volatile elements on the Moon is not as complete as theoretically would have been expected due to high temperatures occurring in the process of collision [28,30]. Thirty years ago Binder’s theory of an initially totally molten Moon [30,31] was heavily controversial [32]. Recently it has again attracted intensive research [33–35].

1.4.2 Earth-Moon System and Development of Life on Earth

Regardless of the exact origin of the Earth’s Moon—excluding the first theory by George Darwin—presumable scenarios 2, 3, and 4 indicate that the Earth has had a relatively large companion with a small iron core for approximately 4.5 billion years. Let us summarize how this might have influenced the development of life on Earth. First of all, (i) this giant impact nearly destroyed the Earth shortly after it was born about 4.5 billion years ago. (ii) This giant collision with another Mars-like protoplanet led to a transfusion of iron to the core of the Earth and a large mass ejection of pre-Earth’s crust material into the orbit, which afterwards circulated closely around our protoplanet, followed by an aggregation of orbiting material that finally formed our Moon (initially totally molten Moon theory) [31,36]; (iii) The new existence of the Moon stabilized the 23° axis of the Earth, which (iv) gave rise to tides and the development of certain seasons in higher and lower latitudes known as spring, summer, fall, and winter. During those prehistoric times, day-and-night cycles were much shorter and, due to the close distance (i.e., gravitational forces), the Moon departed much more slowly (2 cm/year) from the Earth than today (3.5 cm/year). We have to assume that 2 billion years ago the Moon was still only at a distance of about 40,000 km—today approximately 384,500 km—orbiting the Earth 3.7 times per day and thereby inducing high and low tides that were a thousand times stronger and continuously slowed down the rotation of the Earth and the Moon [37]. In a second step, the thermodynamic up- and downstream in the liquid iron core of the Earth induced the formation of an early magnetic field. These streams acted and still act today as important UV shielding, which otherwise would have meant that any organic life forms would be destroyed. The Earth thereby kept water in its atmosphere.

1.4.3 Earth

Soon after the solar system was built 4.56 million years ago the Earth was also created. Today, the surface of the Earth is about 510 km²; one-third, 149 km², is covered by land, the other two thirds, 361 km², by water. Our own body consists of about 60% water, and our blood can contain up to 90% water. Some other organisms can be even up to 99% water [38–40]. Therefore, it is an important question where all the water on Earth comes from. Definitely, in the early phase as a protoplanet 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth’s surface was too hot to retain any water [41]. It took approximately 200-600 million years until the Earth’s crust was cool enough so that water would not evaporate, because the chemical formation of water depends on hydrogen bonds keeping the water molecules together. The earliest fossil documents of water are reported from Greenland and Australia (http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/Stromatolites.htm) [42]. First theories assumed that the water originated from the Earth’s crust [39], but astrophysicists argued for a long time that there was still too much water because reasonable amounts of water in our solar system are found beyond Mars, in the Asteroid belt or Kuiper belt (Figure 1.4). Astrobiologist John Oró hypothesized as early as 1961 [43] that the water originated from comets that were composed of nearly 90% water and came from far away in the solar system, the Oort cloud. They hit the Earth’s surface frequently and in massive numbers during the so-called early bombardment phase. This Oort cloud with its numerous comets marks the outer limits of our solar system (see Figure 1.5). One of the most famous of those comets, Halley’s Comet, originates from this cloud. In 1986, when the European Giotto Mission made an isotope analysis of Halley’s Comet, it surprisingly revealed that the comet’s water had a completely different isotope composition than the water in the Earth’s oceans. Soon, other sources of water were under discussion such as the Asteroid belt. Until very recently, researchers analyzed the composition of the comet 103P/Hartley 2, which originates from the Kuiper belt [44] (Figure 1.4), where approximately more than 70,000 objects larger than 100 km can be found consisting mainly of water [45]. Based on data from the Herschel telescope (spectrograph), this comet from the Kuiper belt showed the exact isotope composition of water as we know it from Earth. Therefore, it is currently thought that the so-called trans-Neptunian objects could have been a major source of the water on Earth—and