Astronomers Discover A Water Reservoir Floating In Space That Is Equivalent To 140 Trillion Times

Astronomers Discover A Water Reservoir Floating In Space That Is Equivalent To

140 Trillion Times All The Water

In The Earth's Ocean


Astronomers Discover A Water Reservoir Floating In Space That Is Equivalent To 140 Trillion Times All The Water In The Earth's Ocean - blog.sciencenatures

https://blog.sciencenatures.com/202...gbsTPjmlcPpo1XTAaOC4Sy2s2PyC4-4o0l6xlD6Cq8O1c

by Admin on October 18, 2022 in Astronomy

There is a reserve of water the size of 140 trillion oceans lurking in a faraway supermassive black hole, the universe's largest deposit of water and 4,000 times the amount found in the Milky Way.



This amount of water was discovered by two teams of astronomers 12 billion light-years away,
where it appears as vapor dispersed across hundreds of light-years.

The reservoir was discovered in a quasar's gaseous area,
which is a brilliant compact region in the heart of a galaxy powered by a black hole.

This finding demonstrates that water may be present throughout the cosmos, even at the start.

While this is not surprising to experts, water has never been discovered this far out before.

The light from the quasar (specifically, the APM 08279+5255 quasar in the constellation Lynx)
took 12 billion years to reach Earth, implying that this mass of water existed when the universe
was just 1.6 billion years old.

One group used the Z-Spec instrument at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii,
while the other used the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps.

These sensors detect millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths,
allowing the detection of trace gases (or vast reservoirs of water vapor) in the early cosmos.

The discovery of many spectral fingerprints of water in the quasar provided researchers
with the data they needed to calculate the vast magnitude of the reservoir.

There is a reserve of water the size of 140 trillion oceans lurking in a faraway
supermassive black hole, the universe's largest deposit of water
and 4,000 times the amount found in the Milky Way.



This amount of water was discovered by two teams of astronomers 12 billion light-years away,
where it appears as vapor dispersed across hundreds of light-years.

The reservoir was discovered in a quasar's gaseous area, which is a brilliant compact region
in the heart of a galaxy powered by a black hole.

This finding demonstrates that water may be present throughout the cosmos,
even at the start.

While this is not surprising to experts, water has never been discovered
this far out before.

The light from the quasar (specifically, the APM 08279+5255 quasar
in the constellation Lynx)
took 12 billion years to reach Earth, implying that this mass of water existed
when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old.

One group used the Z-Spec instrument at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
in Hawaii, while the other used the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps.

These sensors detect millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths,
allowing the detection of trace gases (or vast reservoirs of water vapor)
in the early cosmos.

The discovery of many spectral fingerprints of water in the quasar provided researchers
with the data they needed to calculate the vast magnitude of the reservoir.


Astronomers Discover A Water Reservoir Floating In Space That Is Equivalent To 140 Trillion Times All The Water In The Earth's Ocean - blog.sciencenatures

https://blog.sciencenatures.com/202...gbsTPjmlcPpo1XTAaOC4Sy2s2PyC4-4o0l6xlD6Cq8O1c