H2O is a truly amazing substance. It is a necessity that all organisms on Earth share as a requirement to sustain life. When it freezes, it forms crystals in the shape of fractals. It plays its part in the global weather system. When it is a liquid, it becomes an amorphous object that can assume any shape yet it has a surface tension with enough rigidity to kill a person if they fall from a great enough height. It can stop a bullet traveling at 2,000 feet per second in just a few feet of penetration yet it can be comfortable to dive into at for a person launching them selves off a diving board. It has a neutral PH reading and a high level of transparency in the visual spectrum of electromagnetism. It has far superior thermal conductive properties than most materials.
Liquid H2O only exists under the right conditions. If we didn’t have the weight of the atmosphere pushing down on it, it would boil away. If temperatures exceed 100°C then it would boil (turn into a gas). If temperatures fall below 0°C then it would freeze (turn into a solid). The parameters have to be just right for H2O to take on its liquid form and in many ways you can think of liquid water as an intermediary form between gas and solid but luckily here on Earth, the conditions are just right which traps H2O in this ‚intermediary form‘ which is something to appreciate considering the fact that the vast majority of H2O in the universe is either a solid or a gas. If liquid water wasn’t abundant here on Earth, life as we know it wouldn’t exist.
Photo credit: @the1waterman
#space #astronomy #cosmology #ice #fact #h2o #followme #picoftheday #f4f #carlsagan #neildegrassetyson #billnye #seti #nasa #esa #picoftheday #physics #gas #liquid #einstein #alberteinstein #solarsystem #life #followme #follow #collectiveinsight #water #cosmos #nature by collectiveinsight