(Our Tech Blog) Scientists have recently discovered a giant water masses of the largest and oldest in the universe.
Cloud-shaped mass of water, 12 billion years old and is estimated to contain a mass of water in the amount of 140 trillion times the mass of water on earth.
Water vapor cloud was surrounded by a supermassive black hole known as quasars, is in a location which is about 12 billion light years from Earth.
As quoted by MSNBC news stations, the scientists said the findings prove that water has existed since the beginning of the existence of the universe "Because the light we see left the quasar is more than 12 light years away, we see the presence of water is only about 1.6 mylar after the beginning of universe, "said Alberto Bolatto, one of the researchers from the University of Maryland through a statement.
"This discovery marks the presence of water is closer to a billion years the big bang event," said Bolatto.
Quasar is a luminous and most energetic objects in the universe. Quasar powered by a big black hole that sucks the gases and dust around it and then spew ebsar amounts of energy.
The team of astronomers managed to detect and confirm the presence of water clouds around quasars, through two different telescopes, one in Hawaii and one in California.
Researchers estimate that the water vapor formed in the early emergence of the universe. Thus, the discovery of old clouds do not get too startled them. "This is further evidence of where the water seeped into the entire universe, even in times of very early," said lead study author, Matt Bradford, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Quasar APM 08279 +5255 contains water vapor in the amount 4,000 times bigger than the Milky Way galaxy, the researchers said. This may be due to a lot of water in the form of the Milky Way ice, rather than steam.
Water vapor in the quasars are distributed around the massive black hole in the region which includes hundreds of light years in length. The cloud has a temperature of minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (-17.2 degrees Celsius), however, the Earth's atmosphere has a density of 300 trillion times more dense than the cloud.
As quoted from vivanews.com At least, the cloud that's five times hotter, and 10 to 100 times more dense than what is common in galaxies, including the Milky Way, the researchers said. The cloud water was also revealed other important info about quasars.
Measurement of water vapor and other molecules such as carbon monoxide, revealed the possibility that there is a sufficient amount of gas for a black hole to grow to about six times the previous size. These findings will be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.