Environment for . . . what, exactly? LOL, did you say something not allowed for national security reasons?

It's not just water. Plasma, which is basically gas that carries a charge from free electrons and ions, self-orders, too, in just the same way, creating boundaries of double layers that isolate areas of differing electrical environments. It's a fascinating subject. Because of electrical and magnetic effects generated in plasmas, they do not behave like neutral (uncharged) gasses. You cannot predict a plasma's behavior with kinetic models or fluid dynamics, which is the error astronomers make trying to understand it. This is why they scratch their heads when they see structures in the cosmos that are impossible to explain from the gravity-is-the-only-force-that-creates-structure model they were all taught in school.

It is becoming increasing evident that we do not live in a universe doomed by entropy to burn down to an ember that flickers out in a cold and meaningless death. We live in a universe filled with mechanisms that constantly work to order matter and create form, and despite astronomical distances, we are not isolated from any of it.