It seemed unthinkable to find something like that in space. But two teams of US astronomers discovered it. It is the largest water reserve in the universe ever detected. The discovery shows that water can be found throughout the Universe, says Californian scientist Matt Bradford.
Quasar and water
The mass of water is noticeably larger than all the water on planet Earth. It is equivalent to 140 trillion times the entire water in the world’s oceans, according to scientists. However, there is little chance of being able to observe it with a telescope. Because? Because the mass of water surrounds a huge active black hole called a quasar. And this is more than 12,000 million light years away. Observations made by scientists revealed a time when the universe was only 1.6 billion years old.
Matt Bradford is a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He referred to the discovery stating that it shows that water can be found throughout the Universe. “The environment around this quasar is unique in that it is producing this huge mass of water. This is another demonstration that water is present throughout the Universe. Even in ancient times », he explained.
primordial water
The two groups of astronomers studied a specific quasar called APM 08279+5255. It houses a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the Sun. And it produces as much energy as a billion suns. Bradford’s team was able to learn more about the water, especially its incredible mass. It was thanks to the fact that they detected several spectral signatures of water.
The largest water reserve in the universe is an unprecedented discovery. Before this discovery, astronomers had never found water vapor this far into the primordial universe. There is water in other parts of the Milky Way, but most of it is in the form of ice.
