Astronomers Discover Largest and Most Distant Reservoir of Water Yet

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2011) — Water really is everywhere. Two teams of astronomers, each led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. Looking from a distance of 30 billion trillion miles away into a quasar -- one of the brightest and most violent objects in the cosmos -- the researchers have found a mass of water vapor that's at least 140 trillion times that of all the water in the world's oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.

Because the quasar is so far away, its light has taken 12 billion years to reach Earth. The observations therefore reveal a time when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old. "The environment around this quasar is unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water," says Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and a visiting associate at Caltech. "It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times." Bradford leads one of two international teams of astronomers that have described their quasar findings in separate papers that have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

A quasar is powered by an enormous black hole that is steadily consuming a surrounding disk of gas and dust; as it eats, the quasar spews out huge amounts of energy. Both groups of astronomers 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 a thousand trillion suns.

Since astronomers expected water vapor to be present even in the early universe, the discovery of water is not itself a surprise, Bradford says. There's water vapor in the Milky Way, although the total amount is 4,000 times less massive than in the quasar, as most of the Milky Way's water is frozen in the form of ice.

more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110722132828.htm

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. cool

[valerief]

2. Great, more clean water the gas industry can pollute. nt

[ret5hd]

3. i wonder what the holistic people would say about this waters "memory".

:rofl:

[immoderate]

5. It remembers the Big Bang clearly. You wanna buy some?

:freak:


--imm

[Ghost Dog]

4. In this universe, wherever life is possible

there will be life.

My own opinion, and shared by a neighbor of mine who is a retired European Space Agency exobiologist, amongst others.

[immoderate]

6. I agree. Life accelerates entropy. That is what the Universe most desires.

--imm

[ladjf]

7. I've always felt that the mandate to accelerate entropy on Earth

was life's purpose. Give humans credit for carrying out that mandate as fast as possible.

[immoderate]

8. Bizarre, isn't it? Our work is using energy...

Or else we wouldn't be here.

--imm

[ladjf]

9. It seems that way. All potential energy is moving toward total

coldness and motionless UNTIL some black hole conquers all. Then, perhaps, a "Big Bang" and we begin again.

[immoderate]

10. We're in a rut.

--imm

[Judi Lynn]

11. Largest water reservoir discovered

Largest water reservoir discovered
Press Trust Of India
Washington, July 23, 2011

Astronomers have discovered what they claim is the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. Looking from a distance of 30 billion trillion miles away into a quasar, a team at California Institute of Technology has found a mass of water vapour that's at least 140 trillion times that of all the water in the world's oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.

Quasar is one of the brightest and most violent objects in the cosmos.

Because the quasar is so far away, its light has taken 12 billion years to reach Earth. The observations therefore reveal a time when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old, say the astronomers.

"The environment around this quasar is unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water. It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at very earliest times," team leader Matt Bradford said.

More:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/americas/Largest-water-reservoir-discovered/Article1-724518.aspx

[Peter1x9]

12. This has huge implications for the presence of life in the universe.

It might actually be extremely common. We've already found several planets orbiting in other stars' habitable zones. There's also the ice moons with liquid oceans outside the habitable zones to consider (similar to Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, and Enceladus).