Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2014

13 ASTROBIOLOGY NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2014 der than W ater has been discovered in various forms a bit everywhere in our Solar System. Besides on Earth, it exists in the permanently shadowed craters of Mercury and the Moon, in meteorites, in asteroids, on comets, above and below the surfaces of some natural satellites, in the Martian subsurface. Astrobiology has re- ceived a significant boost by the omnipres- ence of the precious element, since water is fundamental to the existence and develop- ment of life as we know it. Our solar system is not certainly an exception, but even though water has been detected in the form of steam in the atmospheres of some exoplanets, it is not yet clear whether it is the exclusive product of photochemical pro- cesses taking place within the planetary systems in a different manner for each system, or if a more or less significant part