Water is the key ingredient for life on Earth. And as far as we know, it’s a key ingredient for life everywhere else in the universe as well. That shouldn’t be a problem, though, because there’s plenty of water to go around.

Water is common in part because it’s made of two of the three most common elements in the universe – hydrogen and oxygen. They come together in the cold of deep space to make grains of ice. Some of those grains are found in the clouds of gas and dust that give birth to new stars and planets. Others form inside those clouds.

In recent years, astronomers have found evidence of water in other star systems, and even in other galaxies. They’ve found grains of ice in the disks of material around newborn stars. They’ve seen giant belts of comets, which contain a lot of ice. They’ve discovered water vapor in the atmospheres of a few planets. And they’ve even found evidence that some planets could be covered in oceans of liquid water.

One example is TOI 1452 b, which orbits a star that’s much smaller and fainter than the Sun. The planet itself is bigger and heavier than Earth. Given its details and its distance from the star, scientists say it could have a deep global ocean – a possible home for life.

TOI 1452 is about a hundred light-years away, in Draco. The dragon twists high across the north at nightfall. But the star is much too faint to see without a telescope.

Script by Damond Benningfield