Water is everywhere. And almost everywhere is water. Nasa scientists have discovered a black hole 12 billion light years from Earth around which sits a water reservoir that itself spans hundreds of light years and has 140 trillion times the water in the world’s oceans. Scientists have also found evidence of a wet zone within the Earth’s crust that contains as much water as in all the oceans. A foetus is around 95% water, while adults are almost 70% water. Even our bones are 22% water.
Water is everywhere and yet, according to Alok Jha, infinitely mysterious. Scientists know more about outer space than they do about the depths of the ocean. Water is made from such light atoms that at room temperature it should be a gas rather than a liquid. “By the usual rules of chemistry, our Earth should have no oceans at all – all of the water on our planet should exist as vapour, producing a thick, muggy atmosphere that sits above a bone-dry surface.” Even ice cubes in drinks are anomalous: they are solids that float on a liquid version of themselves.
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Scientists know more about outer space than they do about the depths of the ocean
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