All life on Earth needs water. It’s so important to us that when we’re searching for life on other planets, the first thing we look for is liquid water. But water isn’t always a liquid on Earth, it changes to a gas and solid as part of the water cycle. It’s a good job this happens, or we wouldn’t have any fresh water!

You can follow the different processes in the water cycle in the diagram above. Evaporation from lakes and seas, then condenses to form clouds. Water falls from clouds as precipitation in the form of rain and snow. This water then runs off through rivers and streams, and back to the lakes and seas.