As we all know, the global village we live in is a blue planet, with more than 70% of the surface covered by oceans. But where the earth's water comes from is still being studied by scientists. So scientists tried to find answers in the universe.
Recently, scientists have made a breakthrough discovery, they are surprised to find that there is a super cosmic reservoir in space that has 140 trillion times more water than the total amount of water in the Earth's oceans! This huge cosmic reservoir was discovered by two teams of astronomers. One team used the Z-Spec instrument on Caltech's submillimeter telescope, while the other used the Bray Plateau interferometer on the Alpine plateau.
This supercosmic reservoir surrounds a quasar, a highly mysterious celestial body and one of the brightest in the universe. They are usually located in the center of distant galaxies and radiate light with extremely high brightness and energy. Quasars are also among the most mysterious and vibrant objects in the universe. This quasar is located in the constellation of Orion and named APM 08279+5255, more than 12 billion light-years from Earth! This means that the quasar we see is about 1.6 billion years old, and the universe is currently studying 12.5 billion light-years. The black hole in this quasar has a mass of 20 billion times that of the Sun and produces energy equivalent to 1,000 trillion suns.
The research team used radio telescopes to detect the presence of water vapor in the gas surrounding the quasar. They discovered that water vapor is distributed hundreds of light-years around the black hole, with a mass equivalent to 140 trillion times that of all water in Earth's oceans.
However, the water vapor in this quasar is still very different from what we imagined. Water vapor in quasars is caused by high temperatures. In extreme heat, matter ionizes and releases a lot of energy. Water vapor on Earth, on the other hand, is converted from liquid or solid water that exists in nature such as oceans, lakes, rivers and vegetation.
The team also measured that the quasars contained carbon monoxide. During star formation and evolution, large amounts of carbon monoxide are produced. Quasars are celestial bodies formed by the aggregation of stars, so they naturally contain a large amount of carbon monoxide.
Quasars are considered to be among the brightest and most distant objects in the early universe. The discovery suggests that water molecules may have been more prevalent in the early universe than we originally thought.
Scientists have been searching for various forms of water, including ice, vapor and liquids, in different cosmic environments, such as planets, moons, comets and interstellar clouds, and this discovery helps us better understand how matter was transmitted from one galaxy to another during the evolution of the universe. At the same time, it is also of great significance for the search for extraterrestrial life. Because water molecules are the basis of life, and the presence of signs of water vapor in quasars could mean that extraterrestrial life may also exist in quasars.
In addition, this discovery will help us better understand the origin and evolution of matter in the universe. Scientists say they will continue to delve deeper into the phenomenon and look forward to exploring more mysteries of the universe in the future.
In short, this new discovery sheds light on an important mystery in the evolution of the universe, and also brings new hope for the search for extraterrestrial life. We look forward to more breakthroughs in the future."