  A major fraction of the atmospheric aerosols come from the ocean spray
originated by the bursting of bubbles from breaking waves. A theoretical
framework that incorporates the latest knowledge on film and jet droplets from
bubble bursting is proposed. Assuming that their relics constitute the ultimate
origin of primary and secondary sea aerosols through a diversity of
physicochemical routes, the model can be reduced to a single controlling
parameter to predict the global probability density distribution (pdf) of the
ocean spray. The bursting and collapse of small bubbles on the sea surface from
about 10 to 100 microns produces an extreme energy focusing and the ejection of
a rapid liquid spout whose size reaches the free molecular regime of the
gaseous environment. In these rarefied conditions, simulations show that this
spout yields a jet of sub-micrometer and nanometric scale droplets whose number
and speed can be far beyond any previous estimation, overcoming by orders of
magnitude alternative mechanisms recently proposed. The one-parameter model
fits remarkably well published experimental measurements along five orders of
magnitude of spray size, from about 5 nm to about 0.5 mm. According to this
proposal, the majority of aerosols determining the life on our planet would
have their extremely elusive birth in the uterus-like nano-shape of small
bursting bubbles on the ocean surface at the very latest instants of collapse.
