We need drinking water to live on other planets. Has drinking water been found on other exoplanets? Is drinking water an important feature for finding habitable exoplanets?
I want to (self) study in this field and I need some information.
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2$\begingroup$ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_liquid_water summarises our current knowledge. $\endgroup$– gandalf61Commented May 13, 2021 at 14:00
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3$\begingroup$ What do you mean by “drinking water”? Do you just mean liquid water? Humans can’t drink from Earth’s oceans, but most of Earth’s animal biomass is ocean animals who can. $\endgroup$– rob ♦Commented May 14, 2021 at 4:19
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1$\begingroup$ @mathLover Does ice count? In most of the outer solar system, water ice is functionally a mineral. $\endgroup$– rob ♦Commented May 14, 2021 at 14:51
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2$\begingroup$ In that case, you’re using a different approach than most exobiologists. The wiki link in the first comment has a little explanation about why. $\endgroup$– rob ♦Commented May 15, 2021 at 16:38
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1$\begingroup$ Are you only interested in exoplanets? Or are you also interested in water in our Solar System? $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented Jun 10, 2021 at 9:07
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2 Answers
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Drinkable Water is H2O that contains the number of dissolved salts and living organisms that a human being needs in order to replenish the water and minerals lost through transpiration, breathing, and other "waste" cleaning processes (e.g. urine production). For example, on Earth, the ocean water is not "drinkable", actually we have a big issue finding drinkable water resources as many get contaminated or exhausted.
As such, we have not yet discovered drinkable water on other planets.
That said, we may find water resources -in any of the three main phases of matter (solid, fluid, or gas)- that we could adapt to be drinkable, the same we do on Earth when we desalinize ocean water or use condensation to retrieve water from the atmosphere.
Thus our search is for water in any phase, not specific "drinkable" water
And yes, we have already discovered water in many celestial bodies, mostly in the solid form (ice), but it is speculated that other celestial bodies, for example, the moon Europa, may be a Waterworld with a big deep ocean below the ice.
Discovering water on distant stars is done via spectrographic analysis when the planet transits above the remote star. Some exoplanets have shown signs of water vapor in their atmospheres.
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$\begingroup$ Thanks so much! I'm very interested in knowing more about the exoplanets with water vapor in their atmosphere. A simple link is enough for me. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 16, 2021 at 20:58
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1$\begingroup$ Wikipedia could be a good starting point en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… $\endgroup$– BrocbarCommented Jul 2, 2021 at 10:37
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Drinkable water has not been founded on other planets yet. However, we can probably find liquid water from some planets.
In addition , water of solid phase has been found on Mars, which indicates it is possible that creature lived on Mars in history.
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2$\begingroup$ Hello! It appears to me that you use the terms "drinkable water" and "liquid water" non-interchangeable. What is your distinction between the two, or did I simply misunderstand? $\endgroup$– jng224Commented May 13, 2021 at 10:33
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1$\begingroup$ Yes they are different. Not all liquid water is drinkable. Liquid water usually contains elements that lead to illnesses and is not drinkable. $\endgroup$– Jerry S.Commented May 13, 2021 at 10:38
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3$\begingroup$ But non-drinkable water can easily be purified by filtering and/or distillation. $\endgroup$ Commented May 13, 2021 at 14:03
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1$\begingroup$ That’s true. But it is really hard to remove detrimental elements from water. It requires high level of technology and massive equipment to purify. And It is even a tough thing to transform salt water into drinkable water on the Earth, say nothing of non-drinkable water from other planets. $\endgroup$– Jerry S.Commented May 13, 2021 at 15:05
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4$\begingroup$ Im confused by everyone's confusion. Are we stuck on the difference between water humans are capable of drinking (any liquid water) and water humans could drink without any ill effect (what I would commonly refer to as "drinking water" as found in the question)? This seems like a reasonable and common use of the terms. I dont understand the confusion. Ease of conversion from one form to the other doesnt make the forms the same. You can easily convert solid water into liquid water, it doesnt make them the same, and thats an easier conversion than from non-drinking water to drinking water. $\endgroup$– MattCommented May 13, 2021 at 16:48