Astronomers find largest water reservoir ever, 140 trillion times Earth's total...

Astronomers have uncovered the universe's largest and most distant water reservoir, located over 12 billion light-years away. This immense collection of water, equivalent to 140 trillion times the amount found in Earth's oceans, surrounds a quasar, a highly luminous astronomical object powered by a supermassive black hole. The discovery sheds light on the prevalence of water in the universe, even during its earliest stages.

The Unique Environment Around the Quasar
The quasar, named APM 08279+5255, is extraordinary. It houses a black hole 20 billion times the mass of the sun and emits energy comparable to a thousand trillion suns. According to Matt Bradford of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this discovery demonstrates the widespread existence of water in space. Bradford, who led one of the research teams, explained that the environment surrounding the quasar plays a key role in generating such an immense water mass.

Water vapor, a vital trace gas, provides valuable information about the quasar’s environment. In APM 08279+5255, water vapor spans a gaseous region hundreds of light-years wide. Despite a temperature of -63°F, the gas is five times warmer and 10–100 times denser than typical galactic conditions.

Quasar’s Water and the Future
Astronomers estimate that this quasar has enough gas to fuel its black hole, enabling it to grow sixfold. However, the future of this gas remains uncertain; it could condense into stars or be expelled.

The discovery began in 2008 with observations using "Z-Spec," a telescope at Caltech’s Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii. Follow-up studies employed the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) in California and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps. Researchers, including Dariusz Lis of Caltech, contributed to understanding the water’s distribution and sheer magnitude.

Water in Other Cosmic Locations
Beyond quasars, water is found in interstellar clouds, protoplanetary disks, and comets:

Interstellar Clouds: In regions like the Orion Nebula, water exists as ice and vapor. Observations using the Herschel Space Observatory revealed water in warm gases near newly formed stars.
Protoplanetary Disks: These disks, like the one surrounding star PDS 70, contain water ice that contributes to planet formation.
Comets: Objects like Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko carry significant amounts of water ice, which sublimates near stars.
Water is formed through chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen in the cold regions of space. These reactions lead to ice on dust grains, which later accumulate into larger bodies.

This groundbreaking discovery underscores the abundance of water throughout the cosmos, enhancing our understanding of the universe's evolution and potential for life.

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