Monday, April 14, 2014

Water's connection to us

There's something about water. Sure, we know it is essential to life. It facilitates chemical reactions, either carrying ions or participating itself. It is everywhere on earth--traces of it can be found from the poles to the Atacama Desert, deep in the earth to high in the atmosphere. But there's more to it than its role in biology, meteorology, geology, chemistry. In the desert water brings cool wind and a scent that makes the heart leap--for a desert dweller truly knows the blessing that water is, the Prodigal Son come back, life for the land. In Tucson, the smell and sound of rain brings people to the windows, or sends them outside to hear it, to feel it on their faces. In New Mexico, nineteen Pueblos celebrate the rare rains and artists make a living photographing storms and rainbows in the desert landscape. Elsewhere, even in humid climes, people construct ponds on their land, fountains in their plazas, and build homes in flood zones to be near the whispers and ripples and cascades of water. Vacationers go to the beach and bask by the ocean, the roaring waves themselves soothe bathers by their rhythmic movements.

Our world's connection to water, humanity's connection, is profound. For thousands of years we've revered both the sun and rain for the life they give our fields and us. Our reverence our water and reliance on it is hard-wired in us. A thirst in our genes. It is dear to us.

Though we recognize its value, water is quite common both at home and in space. The Moon has small amounts in its crust. Mars has ancient river valleys where water once flowed, and gullies where it may flow now. Ice lies at the poles and what seem to be ancient shorelines are visible. Further  away, some asteroids show signs of water--from light reflecting off their surface (or emitted really) to jets of vapor coming off like a geyser in Yellowstone. Jupiter's moons are full of it, one with an ice-covered world ocean that reminds us of home. Saturn's beauty is owed to billions of chunks of ice orbiting in an incredibly thin sheet. One of these rings, a faint one, begins in a small icy moon that consistently sends water plumes off its South Pole. Even further away, water makes up much of the moons of Uranus and Neptune, the dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets that lie even further away.  Beyond the furthest icy body, we can see water's fingerprint associated with other stars and gassy nebulae. Water, one of the drivers of life, is everywhere.

That a substance so useful and essential for us is so common, is comforting. The focus of this blog is water in the solar system. This is a broad place, everything in our normal experience except the stars themselves are fair game. Penguins and polar bears roam this realm, as do planets, moons, asteroids, and even dust. Where it is, what does it do, how, and why? It is a shaper of our neighborhood and, we are realizing, necessary for further human exploration beyond the earth.




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