Recently, I was remembering a plaque that I saw on the wall of a shop in Nova Scotia. Entitled "A Sailor's Prayer," it read. "Oh God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small." Because I'm a water guy, I liked the prayer and it set me to marveling about how much water actually exists on earth and where it came from.

Only a few days later, I read about an article in the September 25, 2014 issue of Science Magazine that stated that some of the water on earth actually predates the birth of the sun.

"Wow," one might say, "How can this be? This is truly mind boggling."

I don't disagree.

It turns out that a team of astronomers from the University of Michigan theorize that between 30 and 50 percent of the water on earth may date back to a million years before the birth of the sun. They used astronomical observations and sophisticated models run on supercomputers to develop their theory.

The sun is believed to have formed about five billion years ago. This team of scientists who were sure enough of their findings to go public, believe that some of our water dates back to the primordial clouds of gas and dust that formed the sun, the Earth and the other planets in our solar system.

Edwin Bergin, a co-author, stated, "Our astronomical observations tell us that water forms during the collapse of the gas and dust to make stars, but before the star was born. That phase lasted about one million years before the birth of the sun."

Bergin continued, "It's something amazing to think about when you take a look at that glass of water realize how ancient that molecule really is."

So what are the implications? Water certainly is one of the most important ingredients of life on earth. If the results of this study are indeed true, the implications are enormous. Why?

Because other scientists have recently discovered the presence nearly one thousand planets in deep space. If conditions in their solar systems are favorable that water may exist in liquid form, the odds are much more likely that some form of life may exist elsewhere in the universe.

The theory presented in the report may help explain how this is possible.

Co-author of the report, Ilsadore Cleeves, stated, "The availability of abundant water ice during the formation of planets is the first step in creating environments favorable for life….."

I've thought about this since I first read about the research. It's interesting but it likely won't affect my life or the lives of any of us on earth. I did recall though, that a couple of years ago, I wrote an article for this column entitled "Are we drinking dinosaur pee?"

This theory, if true, indicates that not only we, but the dinosaurs that walked the earth 65 million years ago both have drunk water that originally formed before our sun was formed.

Now that is truly amazing. Whew!

Note: Source material for this article was from Newsweek Online, the Huffington Post, and Yahoo.