Quasar Contains Largest Water Reservoir In The Universe

H2O, anyone?

Astronomers have discovered a reservoir containing 140 trillion times the amount of water in all the Earth's oceans, making it the largest mass of water ever detected in the universe.

"The environment around this quasar is unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water," Matt Bradford, a Caltech visiting associate and NASA scientist said in a press release. "It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times."

Quasars are extremely luminous and compact galactic nuclei fueled by a central and supermassive black hole.

Wired UK offers a bit more perspective:

This quasar holds a black hole that's 20 billion times more massive than the sun, and after gobbling down dust and gas it belches out as much energy as a thousand trillion suns. The water vapor is spread around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light years.

Regarding light years, the quasar's incredible distance from Earth reveals an age when the universe itself was a youthful 1.6 billion years old. At roughly 12 billion light years away, it's also the farthest water reservoir ever discovered.

In other quasar discovery news, another group of European scientists recently pinpointed the largest and most distant quasar in the universe, located approximately 13 billion light years from Earth.

Scroll past video to view an artist's interpretation of the massive quasar, compliments of NASA.

LOOK:

Comments

[Bruno Akio]

11:10 PM on 08/06/2011

You tell me how in the bloody hell can they know all this stuff?

[wesdfs]

10:30 PM on 07/30/2011

I wish I was living on another planet-people on earth is crazy

[Watching rock grow]

02:27 PM on 07/30/2011

Hey Saudi's here is your true solution to water. Get busy with getting the water there and save our oceans. Its a much better goal than keeping women from behind the wheel of a car.

[LMPE]

01:21 AM on 07/27/2011

Let me guess: Donald Trump thinks that Barack Obama was born in that quasar.

[aveindustries]

01:05 AM on 07/27/2011

We need to get some of that water to Somalia ASAP.

[Marcusarilius]

10:47 PM on 07/26/2011

Thats a Long way to the Well...

[Arthur L]

09:18 PM on 07/26/2011

i'd be much more impressed if they could find that planet that is run by monkeys.

[gregory57]

11:25 PM on 07/26/2011

Take a look around. You're there, pal.

[Arthur L]

10:30 AM on 07/27/2011

well played.

[rarriagaz]

01:47 AM on 07/31/2011

We had a country that was run by one when the shrub was in office

[Imlostinwyoming]

08:06 PM on 07/26/2011

A black hole with a ring of water around it? Is there a handle on it? Maybe Gods getting ready to flush us all down the Holy crapper?

[firebirdam7]

07:21 PM on 07/26/2011

space is so fascinating. the photos nasa has are impressive and breathtaking. i can only imagine what they have not found. i would love just to go into space and see the earth from above.

[deckercat]

11:49 AM on 07/26/2011

well, i think it looks like thor and poseidon had a baby.

they were still in college and just "experimenting"

[dawntoduskcm]

11:47 AM on 07/26/2011

If i understand stellar development theory correctly.All that water diffused outward into the rest of that galaxy by solarwind pressure.So when the Quasar died down all that water probably became part of the stellar evolution of that galaxy.Since water is a prime requirement of life as we know it the possibilities are very interesting in an abstract way.

[ElderChild]

10:50 AM on 07/26/2011

Gen 1:6-10

"And The Creator said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters". And The Creator made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

"And The Creator said, "Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And The Creator called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters HE called seas, and The Creator saw that it was good."

Father(Creator) Help! and HE does.......

asimpleandspirituallife.org

[Watching rock grow]

02:48 PM on 07/30/2011

Egyptian creation stories from the chaos of the primeval flood a bump of land appears and the waters are divided into the fingers of the Nile River and the Green Sea (Mediterranean Sea). Hapi, the god of the inundation, strings the firmament that is his Nile from his home in the realm of Nut into the realm of Geb. If you want to use religion to explain, science- do not forget other myths please.

Technically, claiming that there is a firmament of water reaching into the sky is closer to the truth since the further south one travels in Egypt. The higher in elevation you travel, and not even the ancient Egyptians knew the source of their great river. So as far as those ancients were concern the Nile took off into the realm of Nut.

[rarriagaz]

01:49 AM on 07/31/2011

Amen

[TYRANNASAURUS]

09:47 AM on 07/26/2011

I'm sure along with H2O, most of the known elements were created early in the history of the universe.

[palindrom]

08:42 AM on 07/27/2011

The big bang itself left only hydrogen and helium, and minuscule traces of lithium, beryllium, and boron. All the elements heavier than that, including carbon and oxygen, must have been cooked up in stellar interiors -- that's the only place where the temperatures and pressures are high enough to form them.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

10:16 AM on 07/27/2011

Yes I'm aware of the stars manufacturing powers through heat and pressure.....but the big bang was hotter and could have created more than what scientist claim... like when anthropologist said we did not interbreed with Neanderthals and now they find DNA of this group in humans...... more is always to be revealed.

[Kinniver]

06:16 PM on 07/31/2011

Heavier elements are created from second and third generation stars when they explode, elements are spread around, new stars and planets form using those elements and so on. There were not enough heavy elements around when the first stars formed.

[iLdoRight]

06:05 AM on 07/26/2011

How intelligent and how capable is OUR CREATOR? I know some have a different opinion as to how things like this have come into existence, however are they astrological savants who have such capabilities that they cannot possibility make a mistake? Do they have the ability to actually see into the past and know what happened? Are there people who can make money by saying things that are difficult to disprove? There are probably some people who are extremely afraid of the idea that we have a creator who is intelligent enough and capable enough to design and create all that is in existence. Scared to think Our Creator is even capable enough to hear one's deepest thoughts and emotions? There are savants who can do some amazing things with their small biological brains that absolutely boggle the minds of some very intelligent people. Some people present theories as if they are solid fact chiseled in steel. Keep an open mind, study the Bible, keep your options in mind; to believe something as amazing as a human can come into existence in an accident in mud or to have been designed and created by a Creator capable of showing you that though He is capable of letting you know how He wants you to function, He also wants you to know that He is capable of creation things you cannot understand, like where the Universe ends or what all it contains.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

09:48 AM on 07/26/2011

OUR CREATOR???????????????

Better you say MY CREATOR.......cause it's not mine.

[rarriagaz]

01:53 AM on 07/31/2011

Denial of being created by the Creator does not mean that the individual denying the Creator wasn't created by the Creator

[dawntoduskcm]

11:58 AM on 07/26/2011

while i beleive in god i personly think we are very egotistical to think we know what he expects or thinks.

[TYRANNASAURUS]

11:09 AM on 07/31/2011

IT'S THE BASES OF EGO TO BELIEVE A GOD CREATED YOU.

[AWL]

05:21 AM on 07/26/2011

"Lies make Baby Jesus cry." - Rodd Flanders

[TYRANNASAURUS]

10:07 PM on 07/27/2011

Baby??????????????? I thought he theoretically grew up....