Liquid water is typically associated with planet Earth, but our solar system hosts surprisingly large volumes of the stuff—you just need to know where to look.
Earth is parked inside our solar system’s habitable zone, a celestial sweet spot in which liquid water can persist on a world’s surface. Places outside this zone, whether planet, dwarf planet, or moon, are either burnt to a crisp or frozen solid, but that doesn’t mean they’re devoid of liquid water. Granted, this wet stuff isn’t just sitting on the surface in plain view, so scientists have had to use various tricks to find it.
This story was originally published on August 31, 2020.
