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Guided tour · 8 stops
💧 Worlds with water
Where is there water apart from on Earth – and perhaps even life?
- The blue Earth
Around 71 per cent of Earth's surface is covered by water. For a long time people thought liquid water was a great exception in the Solar System. Today we know there is far more of it – only well hidden.
- Mars – once wet
Billions of years ago Mars had rivers, lakes and perhaps a sea. In Jezero Crater, the Perseverance rover is exploring a former river delta. Today the water is frozen in the polar caps and in the ground.
- Ceres
Even the dwarf planet Ceres in the Asteroid Belt contains a lot of ice. The bright spots in its craters are salt, left behind when salty water from the interior evaporated.
- Europa
Beneath the icy shell of Jupiter's moon Europa lies an ocean that holds twice as much water as all the seas on Earth. From 2030 the Europa Clipper probe is to find out whether it could support life.
- Ganymede
The largest moon in the Solar System has an ocean too – squeezed between layers of ice like the filling in a sandwich. The European probe JUICE is already on its way there.
- Enceladus
This small moon of Saturn shoots fountains of water into space. The Cassini probe flew through them and found salt and organic molecules – ingredients that are important for life.
- Titan
Titan has rivers, lakes and rain – only they are made of liquid methane, at minus 180 degrees. And deep beneath its surface there is also an ocean of real water.
- Even Pluto?
Researchers suspect an ocean even beneath Pluto's icy surface. Water seems to be almost everywhere in the outer Solar System – the exciting question is whether anything lives in it somewhere.
In the 3D model the camera flies from stop to stop. The narrator’s voice is computer-generated.
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