• Question: What do you reckon will happen when there is no water left on the atmosphere? Do you think there is going to be a different chemical which can give be used as the substitute for water?

    Asked by to Ben, Emily, Hattie, Jemma, Veronica on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Emily Hayward

      Emily Hayward answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi lilymiss,

      Thats a really good question. On earth water doesnt escape from the atmosphere therefore this is unlikely to be a problem. The composition of the atmosphere changes slightly with the amount of water in clouds, and then the water condenses and turns to rain and it returns to the land/sea…..on other planets however there has been searches to find water as its thought by most scientists that life isnt possible without water. There are lots of other great chemicals but I’m not sure any can replace water to do the same things. In Chemistry sometimes other things can be used instead of water to heat things up in or do reactions in (as a solvent), however this usually causes different things to happen depending on whats used.

      I hope this helps, and please keep asking any questions you have 🙂

    • Photo: Jemma Rowlandson

      Jemma Rowlandson answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi lillymiss!

      Well that’s a tough one. The planet has a water cycle which ensures that liquid water is evaporated into water vapour (clouds) and then rained out as liquid water again. This means there is a constant level of water on the Earth; we are actually drinking the same water as the dinosaurs!

      If there was no water left in the atmosphere that would mean something has happened to disrupt this cycle. No water in the atmosphere also means there is likely no liquid water on Earth, as liquid water would evaporate to form water vapour in the atmosphere.

      There would have to be a pretty catastrophic event to lose all the water in Earth’s atmosphere. This could be caused by a very extreme ice age for example (although I’m not sure what would cause that to happen, it’s very unlikely to). The temperature of the Earth would have to drop significantly and all water would freeze to ice.

      A similar event occurred on the planet Mars. At one point Mars had liquid water but it somehow lost the carbon dioxide (which keeps the planet warm) in its atmosphere and all the water froze. There is now only a very tiny amount of water vapour left in the atmosphere of Mars.

      There is no known substitute for water. Without liquid water nothing on the planet would be able to survive. Human beings can only go three days without a drink of water; it is probably the most important chemical to us. I hope this answered your question! 🙂

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