We’re always trying to find proof of life in space, usually with hit-or-miss results.
But this particular discovery is certainly worth mentioning, even if it doesn’t feature news about little green aliens.
Two teams of astronomers discovered an extremely large reservoir of water – the largest ever in fact – feeding a black hole.
The body of water contains the equivalent of all the water available in the world’s oceans…140 trillion times over.
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According to NASA scientist Matt Bradford, one of the team leaders who helped with this discovery, the body of water feeds a quasar, a type of black hole surrounded by an extremely luminous and active cloud of gas and dust.
This particular quasar is located 12 billion light-years away.
Even by galactic standards, where the outskirts of our galaxy are considered ‘nearby’, 12 billion light-years away is not exactly around the corner.
Above: Illustration of the body of water in the quasar made by NASA
“The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” Matt Bradford wrote in a statement.
“It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.”
The discovery was made by Bradford and his team while they were studying a black hole that’s 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces more energy than a thousand trillion suns.
Imagine that, if you can.
Even though this discovery dates back to 2011, it’s still relevant today because there was a lot less media attention around space at the time.
These days, the space race is back on.
It was probably a combination of factors that revamped it.
Take Elon Musk’s outrageous predictions, for example.
The Musketeer now says SpaceX Starship can fly ‘beyond the solar system‘, which has certainly helped generate extra interest in space.
The fact that we’re now ‘traveling’ to the moon again after seemingly forgetting we ever did in the first place, is also a key driver of space exploration in modern times.
Then there’s new the Webb Telescope, which is infinitely more powerful than its predecessor, allowing us to make discoveries the previous generation of technology couldn’t handle.
Space is ace, and it’s definitely got enough stuff that we don’t know about to keep the hype running for a long time to come.
