Posted on 07/22/2011 8:44:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Astronomers have discovered the largest and oldest mass of water ever detected in the universe — a gigantic, 12-billion-year-old cloud harboring 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
The cloud of water vapor surrounds a supermassive black hole called a quasar located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence, researchers said.
"Because the light we are seeing left this quasar more than 12 billion years ago, we are seeing water that was present only some 1.6 billion years after the beginning of the universe," said study co-author Alberto Bolatto, of the University of Maryland, in a statement. "This discovery pushes the detection of water one billion years closer to the Big Bang than any previous find."
Quasars are the most luminous, most powerful and most energetic objects in the universe. They are powered by enormous black holes that suck in surrounding gas and dust and spew out huge amounts of energy.
...
The astronomers used two different telescopes, one in Hawaii and one in California, to detect and confirm the water vapor surrounding the quasar.
Scientists think water vapor was present even in the early universe. So finding this old cloud of the stuff doesn't come as a shock.
"It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times," said study lead author Matt Bradford of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
However, the sheer size of the vapor cloud may surprise some scientists. APM 08279+5255 contains 4,000 times more water vapor than our own Milky Way galaxy, researchers said. That may be because much of the Milky Way's water is locked up in ice rather than vapor.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
What the heck is that? How does it disprove anything? Can you at least link to the looney website where you found it?
140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combinedAs Jeff Bridges sez in "The Fabulous Baker Boys", "lotta water".
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If you don’t know what ngc7603 is, you’re not in any sort of a position to be lecturing anybody on lyman forests...
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