This is the first time such a finding is confirmed

Oct 21, 2011 07:24 GMT  ·  By
Experts find water around a quasar located more than 12 billion light-years away
   Experts find water around a quasar located more than 12 billion light-years away

For the first time ever, astronomers confirm the discovery of water vapors around a quasar located about 12 billion light-years away. This means that the object existed when the Universe was just a fraction of its current age. Water has never been found around such an ancient object before.

A quasar – quasi-stellar radio source – is a very energetic, distant active galactic nucleus that is powered by a supermassive black hole. They emit light in all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and are famous for their huge redshift.

This measure is an indicator of distance. The more light travels through space, the more its wavelength increases, shifting towards the redder parts of the spectrum. Scientists use this value as a means of verifying the age of objects in space.

The research team that carried out the new investigation is based at the Leiden University, in the Netherlands, Universe Today reports. The group carried out its research in two observation sessions, in December 2010 and February 2011.

They used six antennas at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) Plateau de Bure Interferometer to observe the quasar APM 08279+525 and its surrounding galaxy.

This is not the first time that water is found around quasars. Other instances of the phenomenon have been identified before, but only in radio sources located a lot closer to Earth. Finding this particular object demonstrates that the presence of water throughout the Universe has a long-standing “tradition.”

“Water in cosmic clouds is normally frozen to ice, but the ice can be evaporated by the strong radiation of the quasar or of young stars. Therefore we decided to search for water vapor in this object,” Leiden astronomer Paul van der Werf explains.

“It is located so far away that we are looking back in time, to an era where the Universe was only 10% of its present age. This is one of the first searches ever conducted to find water in the early Universe,” the team leader goes on to say.

Interestingly enough, the new data appear to indicate that the water reserves surrounding this quasar exceed Earth's 1,000 trillion times over. “Water molecules are sensitive to infrared radiation, so we could use the water vapor detected as a cosmic infrared light meter,” astronomer Marco Spaans adds.

The expert, who was also a member of the research team, is based at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands. “With this method we found that essentially all radiation is locked up in the gas disk surrounding the black hole,” he adds.

“This trapped radiation is so intense that it will build up enormous pressure and eventually blow away the gas and dust clouds surrounding the black hole,” Spaans concludes.