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Water On Planets
Name: Skeim
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Prior to 1993
Question:
Are there any other planets in our solar system that have water
on them?
Replies:
There may be frozen water on Mars and on the Moon! I do not know
of any evidence for water anywhere else in the solar system.
Yes, there is probably water on Mars. The evidence is the white
polar caps that form every Martian winter, although those may be dry ice
(frozen carbon dioxide). There may also be spectroscopic evidence of water.
If we ever actually do a Mission To Mars, it sure would be nice if there was
water there!
John Hawley
I did a bit of research and it appears that water (mostly in the
form of ice or frost) may exist on (or in) many of the bodies of our solar
system. A recent (10/92) article in Science magazine spoke of radar evidence
for frozen water at the north pole of Mercury. Ice may also be present at the
smaller south pole. There is good evidence that Venus has some small amount
of water vapor in its atmosphere. All of the gas giants(Jupiter, Saturn,
etc.) likely have water ice as a significant component of their cores, and
Voyager found that Jupiter's and Saturn's atmospheres have frozen water
clouds, and below them clouds of liquid water droplets. Ice is the major
constituent of Saturn's rings, and is a major component of the crust and
mantle of several of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons (indeed, there is
speculation that Jupiter's moon Europa, in addition to having a crust that is
largely ice, may have a layer of liquid water beneath this crust.) Ice is
found on the surfaces of the major moons of Uranus and Neptune. And comets
consist mainly of ice. But if you want oceans (or even lakes), Earth seems to
be the only place in the solar system to look.
Ronald Winther
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Update: June 2012
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