Largest body of water ever found is not present on Earth, but...
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Massive reservoir of water is swirling in the universe.
Earth is a tiny speck in the vast cosmos of the universe, and it is mostly water. But the biggest water reservoir is located 12 billion light-years from us in a corner where a supermassive black hole that can fit 20 billion suns also resides.
Water, the source of all life, is not only present on Earth, but also in other places in the universe. Research found huge amounts of water swirling in space during the early years of the universe. This water body is so huge that it could fit 140 trillion times the amount of water found on Earth. It is located 12 billion light-years away, meaning that it existed when the universe was only about one billion years old. Light-years is the amount of time light takes to reach Earth; hence, the light from this source has travelled 12 billion years to reveal this stupendous cosmic body of water. This reservoir of water is orbiting a quasar called APM 08279+5255. Quasars are extremely bright objects typically located at the centre of some galaxies and powered by a supermassive black hole. When the black holes feed on matter, they release large amounts of energy, which is visible as a highly luminous light source. Also Read: 1-in-500 cosmic coincidence? Scientist says 3I/ATLAS could be millions of times bigger than 2I/Borisov, only if...
But this water is not present in liquid form. Instead, it is present as water vapour because of the high heat generated by the black hole's feeding frenzy. This cloud of gas surrounds the black hole, spanning hundreds of light-years. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) pointed out the unique characteristic of this black hole. "The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water," Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said. "It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times," he said. Also Read: 249 radio signals slam Earth in minutes: Deep-space eruption puzzles scientists
Black hole is 20 billion times more massive than the sun
The observation was made by two groups of astronomers, while the study was funded by NASA and published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The researchers observed a particular quasar called APM 08279+5255. They found that a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun is feeding this quasar, triggering the release of as much energy as a thousand trillion suns. Scientists have long believed that water reached Earth through a cosmic body, such as an asteroid. This stems from studies that water is omnipresent in the universe, probably not always in the same way as on Earth. However, the discovery of this vast reservoir 12 billion light-years away was not expected, as the universe was still in its infancy at this time. Even the Milky Way has water, but in frozen form.
