• Question: how many planets has water been found on?

    Asked by 697putk52 to Jake on 28 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 28 Nov 2017:

      We only know one planet that has plenty of liquid water: Earth. Though there are quite a few planets outside our solar system that look like they might have liquid water (about 20). There is also a moon of Jupiter (Europa) and a moon of Saturn (Enceladus) that both have liquid water.

      Water can also be a solid (ice) or a gas (water vapour) though. Once you start counting solids and gases, then all the planets in our solar system have water, though most only have a small amount of vapour or ice. Mars on the other hand has large polar ice caps, just like Earth.

      I would guess that most exoplanets (ones outside the solar system) have at least some water, even if it’s not liquid.

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