Water

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is famous for its plumes that spray water into space. Now the James Webb Space Telescope has watched the biggest known plume so far, spanning thousands of miles, and studied how they feed a huge water “donut” around Saturn.

If you leave a clear bottle of water in the sunlight, the UV rays will kill any microbes in that water, making it drinkable … but it has to sit in the sun for at least six hours. A new sunlight-activated powder, however, does the job in one minute.

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor on an object in the asteroid belt, a region of the solar system where it wasn’t known to survive. The new observations also reveal something unexpectedly missing.

Removing heavy metal pollutants from water could soon be easier than ever, thanks to an experimental new sponge. With just one treatment, the device brought contaminated water down to safely drinkable levels.

Water on the Moon isn't kept in convenient reservoirs, it’s locked away in the lunar soil. Now, a team of scientists has found that thirsty astronauts could one day refresh themselves fairly easily – by throwing a cup of Moon dirt in the microwave.

Back in 2020 we told you about the QuenchSea, a foot-pump-powered portable device for desalinating sea water. Well, its makers are back with the QuenchSea Reel, which uses deep-ocean water pressure to do the same job.

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor near a planet in another system. Although there's a big if hanging over the find, it could mark the first direct detection of a rocky exoplanet’s atmosphere.

EPFL engineers have built and tested a solar reactor that generates hydrogen gas from sunlight and water. The system is not only highly efficient at producing hydrogen, it also captures the “waste” products of oxygen and heat to put them to use too.

A new study led on how water could form on young exoplanets with hydrogen atmospheres and molten oceans of magma suggests that Earth-like planets may not be as rare as once thought and that the presence of water on such planets may be almost inevitable.

The belly feathers of the male desert sandgrouse can absorb and carry water. Researchers have, for the first time, closely examined the unique structure of these feathers to see how they do it and whether the process might be adapted for human use.

Beetles can live in incredibly dry environments by taking water from the air and absorbing it through their rectums. Scientists have now discovered how this rear-end phenomenon works, and the findings may help to protect world food supplies.

Mussels and other mollusks usually aren't thought of as being all that active. Recently, however, scientists have documented a water-squirting behavior in just one species, which is apparently using the action to give its larvae a fighting chance.