How many planet have water in the Milky Way?

Answer 1

There is believed to be water, both naturally forming, and through man's intervention.

On November 13, 2009, scientists from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite said unequivocally there is water on the moon and plenty of it.

In October 2009 a satellite slammed into a crater on the moon and about 24 gallons of water filled the hole from the impact.

See related link for a New York Times article.


It hasn't yet been definitively established that there is no water ice anywhere on the moon. The 'Lunar Prospector' spacecraft indicated that water ice might be present at both the north and south lunar poles, in agreement with 'Clementine' results for the south pole. It isn't known how much water could actually be found.

Although the moon does not have pockets of water like earth, water deposits have been found in soil deposits that where taken from the moon in the first Apollo missions. These deposits looked like orange dirt and it was not discovered until recently that these orange particle contain water.

A report was released in September 2009, indicating that an Indian lunar exploration team had indeed found "large quantities of water" on the moon. Furthermore, data collected from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft also pointed to the strong possibility that water was still being formed on the moon.

See the related link for the article.

Answer 2

Water is a basic component found in all living cells. Without water, nothing will be able to survive. Thus, life depends on water. Hence, if water is present, there are chances of life thriving due to it. That is why scientists look for water as evidence of life.

Answer 3

It's about 59 percent, in total, but only 50 percent at any one time.

(Of course, because of the Moon's phases, it's only at Full Moon that we can actually "see" the 50% all at once.)

The Moon always has the same side facing Earth, so that's 50 percent of the Moon's surface that's visible.

Another 9 percent becomes visible because of variations called "librations" .

Answer 4

We don't know. The milky way has about 300 billion stars and they each have planets. A good estimate would be one billion planets with water, since our solar system has 8 planets and only Earth and the moon Europa have water on them.

Answer 5

The Moons Bond albedo is 11% (which includes all radiation hitting the surface) but for just visible light it's about 7.2%. Of course these numbers are averages as different parts of the lunar surface are darker than others.

Answer 6

Three different spacecraft have confirmed there is water on the Moon. It hasn't been found in deep dark craters or hidden underground. Data indicate that water exists diffusely across the moon as hydroxide or water molecules - or both - adhering to the surface in low concentrations. Additionally, there may be a water cycle in which the molecules are broken down and reformulated over a two week cycle, which is the length of a lunar day. This does not constitute ice sheets or frozen lakes: the amounts of water in a given location on the Moon aren't much more than what is found in a desert here on Earth. But there's more water on the Moon than originally thought.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html

Answer 7

We are aware of only two moons in the solar system that certainly have water; our own moon and Europa. While scientists have discovered evidence of several dozen planets around other stars, the moons (if any!) would be too small to be seen at those vast distances from Earth.

Any of the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn _MAY_ have water, but no positive evidence has been found. The smaller moons are unlikely to have any water, because it would have sublimated away into space.

Answer 8

There are theories that the moon use to be part of the Earth, therefore, when the asteroid that hit Earth and sent a large chunk ( Theorized as our moon) in to space, that piece may have water on it from where it use to be part of the Earth.

Answer 9

We're not sure yet. Considering the cost of rocketing water up from Earth for our proposed lunar colony, we hope that it is a LOT.

Answer 10

Why do scientists believe there might be water on the Moon?