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by rthomas6 4120 days ago
That's not true at all. It depends on the pressure.

http://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/images/research_educati...

1 comments

Excuse me. As long as the pressure is at least 0.006 atm. Is that what your point is?
Yes. The pressure of space is not sufficient for liquid water, regardless of how hot or cold it is. This means that regardless of how much ice or vapor exists on separate terrestrial bodies, we cannot assume that there is liquid somewhere in between.

Now, if there was a single planet that had both ice and vapor water, and that planet had an atmospheric pressure of greater than 0.006 atm, then I agree that there must be some liquid water somewhere on that planet. But ice and vapor on a single planet with a sufficient atmosphere is a much higher bar to clear than two totally separate places that combined have both ice and water vapor.

If you actually read what I wrote, you would have understood I was referring to water on planets. Obviously there is not likely to be liquid water in the vacuum of space. The "space is cold" "planets are hot" might have been a pretty sure clue that I was referring to water between a planet's hot core and cold vacuous space.