Spanish and Italian astronomers have for the first time measured the total amount of water in cold regions of our galaxy. This is especially interesting because these regions are the birthplace of stars like the Sun, and Solar Systems like our own. The researchers also determined how much water is in gaseous form and how much is 'frozen'. This has implications for the study of newborn planetary systems, since the water vapour and ices will end up in gaseous planets, planetary atmospheres and solid bodies like comets. As a result of this research, astronomers now know how much of each of these ingredients is available when a new planetary system is in the making.
Chemical reactions producing water are common in space.
The existence of huge amounts of water in many different regions was discovered by ISO four years ago. In the Orion nebula, for instance, ISO found enough water to fill the Earth's oceans thousands of times over. And yet that was only the tip of the iceberg. These regions are called 'quiescent' or 'cold' clouds, because they don't form massive stars and hence lack strong internal heat sources. They are at a mean temperature of -263oC, just 10 degrees above absolute zero.