In Space, Water, Water Everywhere

The recent discovery of water on Earth's moon by the India lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, as reported by the India Research Space Organisation and confirmed by NASA, has the public as well as the scientific community virtually walking on water with visions of using lunar water for the creation of rocket fuel that doesn't need to be lifted from Earth's gravity well. As each day passes, however, it seems that the solar system is practically drowning in the stuff.

Europa's Vast Oceans

Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, has been determined to have more than twice as much water as the Earth, much of it in liquid form. While this has been known for years, a report published in Astronomy Magazine now suggests that this Jovian moon's water may also contain enough oxygen to support life.

Themis, a Water-bearing Asteroid

Sure, but that's out beyond the asteroid belt. Nothing closer could prevent water from flashing off into space under the sun's glare unless it contained a significant protective atmosphere, right? Wrong! The latest news reported online by New Scientist Magazine is that the chemical signature of water has been confirmed on the asteroid Themis. Themis is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, closer than it was previously though water could exist on an airless body. Yet this new research confirms and earlier finding by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the SETI Institute that showed water on Themis in the form of surface frost.

Comets Carry Water

Comets have lots of water on their surface, but when they come closer than Jupiter's orbit, the sun's energy starts blazing that water off along with other surface chemicals leaving a brightly visible tail trailing behind them. If a comet were to stay within Jupiter's orbit, it should have lost any surface water millions of years ago according to the conventional wisdom.

Water on Mars

NASA's Phoenix lander found water on Mars in 2008, although the famed Canals on Mars proved to be dry. They may have been carved by historic ice thaws on the red planet, or more likely by the fierce wind storms of Mars' thin atmosphere. That atmosphere, as thins as it is compared to that of Earth, could have saved surface water on Mars from being flashed off.

Did Earth's Water Come from Outer Space?

The fact that water exists so close to Earth's orbit lends a little more credence to theories that Earth's water may have been deposited during by comets and watery asteroids whose eccentric orbits took them on a collision course with Earth in the early days of our solar system. This same theory is being offered for the origin of water on Earth's moon, even as we await the results of NASA's LCROSS Heavy Imactor.

Extraterrestrial Water and Extraterrestrial Life

Mars, Europa, the asteroids, comets, the Earth's moon, Europa, Saturn's rings, and the list goes on and on until it seems that we can hardly aim a telescope anywhere in the sky without getting an eyeful of water. With each discovery of extraterrestrial water, the chances of finding extraterrestrial life to go with it go up astronomically. The prevalence of liquid and frozen water and the other building blocks of life within our own solar system suggest that watery worlds may be far more common in our galaxy that we ever dreamed, making it a virtual certainty that we are not alone.

Sources:

www.newscientist.com/article/dn17970-asteroid-isnt-just-a-dry-heap-of-rubble.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=space

www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm

www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/moon20090924.html

WATER ICE ON 24 THEMIS?. A. S. Rivkin and J. P. Emery, Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory), Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute retrieved from http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/acm2008/pdf/8099.pdf on October 12, 2009.

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html