In a finding of significance in the search for life beyond Earth, scientists have discovered what appears to be a body of liquid water the volume of the North American Great Lakes locked inside the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa–which could represent a new potential habitat for life.
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When our satellites search for other planets that might harbor life, they always search for water. But now, for the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that’s cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets. And with oceans, life could spring up–or maybe migrate to the planet from another place.
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One that is shooting water! A geyser of water is spurting up from the poles of a star that is 750 light-years from the earth at a rate of 124,000 mpg, creating "water bullets" that it shoots deep into space. If it has other planets around it, the inhabitants (if any) will have plenty to drink.
If this kind of star is common, there’s a possibility that stars like these distributing water throughout the universe. And since water is one of the things necessary for life as we know it, it implies that life is more common than we’ve thought.
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The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking, and that amount doesn’t even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants.
On NPR, Terry Gross interviewed water expert Charles Fishman, author of "The Big Thirst," who says, "The last 100 years has been the golden age of water in the developed world: water that has been safe, unlimited and essentially free. But that era is over. We will not, going forward, have water that has all three of those qualities at the same time: unlimited, unthinkingly inexpensive and safe."
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