by Maol » Wed Apr 10, 2024 8:10 am
What does EU think about this?
Astronomers have discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected in the universe — a gigantic, 12-billion-year-old cloud harboring 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
The cloud of water vapor surrounds a supermassive black hole called a quasar located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence, researchers said.
"Because the light we are seeing left this quasar more than 12 billion years ago, we are seeing water that was present only some 1.6 billion years after the beginning of the universe," said study co-author Alberto Bolatto, of the University of Maryland, in a statement. "This discovery pushes the detection of water one billion years closer to the Big Bang than any previous find."
The research team studied a particular quasar called APM 08279+5255, which harbors a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much energy as one quadrillion suns. [The Top 10 Strangest Things in Space]
The astronomers used two different telescopes, one in Hawaii and one in California, to detect and confirm the water vapor surrounding the quasar.
~~~~ more in the link ~~~~~~
https://www.space.com/12400-universe-bi ... om%20Earth.
What does EU think about this?
Astronomers have discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected in the universe — a gigantic, 12-billion-year-old cloud harboring 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
The cloud of water vapor surrounds a supermassive black hole called a quasar located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence, researchers said.
"Because the light we are seeing left this quasar more than 12 billion years ago, we are seeing water that was present only some 1.6 billion years after the beginning of the universe," said study co-author Alberto Bolatto, of the University of Maryland, in a statement. "This discovery pushes the detection of water one billion years closer to the Big Bang than any previous find."
The research team studied a particular quasar called APM 08279+5255, which harbors a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much energy as one quadrillion suns. [The Top 10 Strangest Things in Space]
The astronomers used two different telescopes, one in Hawaii and one in California, to detect and confirm the water vapor surrounding the quasar.
~~~~ more in the link ~~~~~~
https://www.space.com/12400-universe-biggest-oldest-cloud-water.html#:~:text=Astronomers%20have%20discovered%20the%20largest%20and%20oldest%20mass,a%20quasar%20located%2012%20billion%20light-years%20from%20Earth.