Can you drink water from other planets?

We take a look at whether a glass of alien water is safe for us to drink

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Extraterrestrial water, such as that given out as plumes from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, is likely to be too dangerous for us to drink

Extraterrestrial water, such as that given out as plumes from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, is likely to be too dangerous for us to drink. Image credit: NASA

Asked by Hillary Wright

It’s probably not a good idea! Knowing which minerals on other planets are readily dissolved in water, and in what concentrations, is pretty difficult to gauge at the moment. There’s quite a high chance that any water that you attempted to bottle up and drink from another world is likely to be a sludge of minerals, acidic or laden with toxic metals or carrying other unsavoury materials from underground.

If we took Mars, for example, it’s likely that any water found on there would either be extremely acidic or even very salty. You might argue that a beverage like Coca-Cola is acidic and you would be right. However, with a pH of around 2.4, our stomachs can handle it. The Red Planet’s acidity, however, will cause serious internal injuries.

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