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Scientists now believe that water planets are much more common, but the water there could be mixed with rocks or underground, rather than as surface oceans.
Water is one of the most important components of all life on Earth, and it is what scientists most often look for in habitable exoplanets. But it turns out that water-rich worlds are far more common in the Milky Way Galaxy than we first thought, a new study has found.
The findings of this study, published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Science, shed light on the prevalence of water in the universe, which could potentially be a game-changer in the search for strange new habitable worlds.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not surprising that water can be found outside the Earth. In fact, water is already surprisingly widespread in the universe.
Even in our own solar system, while very faint traces of water can be found in the atmospheres of other planets, many asteroids likely have significant amounts of water—in fact, some scientists suggest that most of Earth’s water came from asteroid impacts.
Water can also be found on moons, with several moons in the solar system, such as Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Europa, supposedly containing large amounts of water.
Contrary to popular belief, other planets are also known to have water, though not necessarily the planets in our solar system.
