UV FTW!

Breaking up is Easy to Do — With Ultraviolet
This is one of those stories that seems almost impossible at first glance: making water in space? No way! Wouldn’t it all freeze out there?
Well, yeah… but you can get water vapor if you happen to have really hot stars near a nebula that is rich with molecules of hydrogen gas (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and silicon monoxide (SiO). Those hot stars emit loads of ultraviolet radiation, which is energetic enough to break the oxygen molecules free. Once they are, they readily will bond with the hydrogen gas molecules to form water. Add in a heat source (like the nearby dying star and the heat from other stellar neighbors) and you get water vapor.
The star IRC+10216 -- where astronomers are studying a cloud of water vapor surrounding the star.
Of course, the water needs to have a stable environment to exist in, like a warm envelope of gas and dust. Such a curcumstellar envelope is where the European Space Agency’s Herschel spacecraft has made a significant discovery. It observed a cloud surrounding the dying star IRC+10216 and studied its steamy vapor cloud. This stellar sauna has been known to ...