Far. Very far. About 12 billion light years away, in a remote corner of the universe, there is an unimaginable reserve of water.
140 billion oceans. 140 trillion times (on the Anglo-Saxon scale) the volume of all the Earth’s oceans combined. The largest and most distant reservoir of water ever identified in the universe.
This colossal reservoir of water orbits a quasar whose light has been reaching us since shortly after the Big Bang. “It’s another indication that water is widespread throughout the universe, even in its early stages,” said one of its discoverers, scientist Matt Bradford of NASA’s JPL laboratory.
A supermassive black hole. The quasar, named APM 08279+5255, envelops a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the Sun that produces as much energy as a quadrillion suns.
This central black hole pulls in surrounding matter, heating the gas and dust to create a region filled with molecules never before detected at such an extreme distance. Water vapor is one of these molecules, and its presence indicates that the quasar is emitting radiation, because it keeps the surrounding gas relatively warm.
What are quasars? These objects were named in the late 1950s, when telescopes of the time revealed mysterious bright sources in distant parts of space. They shine brightly from the centers of remote galaxies, outshining all the stars in their galaxy.
At its core is a supermassive black hole with millions or even billions of times the mass of our Sun. As gas and dust spiral toward the black hole, they heat up and release energy. This energy radiates at all wavelengths, making quasars one of the brightest and most energetic phenomena in the cosmos.
What makes this one special. Astronomers discovered water vapor extending in a region hundreds of light years across around the quasar. Taking into account that one light year is equivalent to 9 billion kilometers, there is no other water reserve as massive and distant.
This exceptional reserve is possible thanks to the unusual conditions of the environment: the gas is five times hotter and hundreds of times denser than that of typical galaxies. Astronomers also detected other molecules, such as carbon monoxide, suggesting that there is abundant material fueling the black hole as it grows.
Why it is important. The study of quasars allows astronomers to learn from the early universe, since the light that we can observe from Earth has traveled billions of years to reach us.
Because they are so intense, quasars provide invaluable information about the formation of galaxies, the distribution of matter and the development of the first cosmic structures. The detection of water in such a distant quasar is especially important because it is an essential component for life.
Image | NASA/ESA
In WorldOfSoftware | The brightest object we know in the universe has another record-breaking feature: being the most voracious
