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Mystery #3Tier 1water and life

Why is finding water the first thing scientists look for when searching for life?

When astronomers hunt for life on faraway worlds, they don't begin by looking for animals or plants. Again and again, the very first thing they search for is water. Not gold, not air, not warmth first: water. Why would water be the thing they chase before all else?

Jets of water ice spraying out from cracks in the icy moon Enceladus, backlit against the dark, hinting at a hidden ocean below
Photo: Mark McCaughrean · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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Why do you think water, of all things, would be so important for life?

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