WE’VE found planets around other stars, now we know some of them have water
too. And if other planetary systems have water, they may also harbour the other
ingredients for life.
Water has been detected before in the vicinity of other stars, but only young
stars surrounded by dusty discs of material which has yet to coalesce into
planets. But astronomers have always assumed that the water in such systems
comes from the stars which, being young, are rich in hydrogen.
Now NASA’s Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) has found evidence
of water vapour around a red giant called CW…
