In a major discovery, astronomers have detected a huge reservoir of water around a star located 12 billion light-years from Earth.
The extraordinary discovery provides an unprecedented glimpse into the early universe, along with starlight traveling through space shortly after the Big Bang.
The reservoir of water is estimated to be 140 trillion times the volume of Earth’s oceans. It is located near a supermassive black hole that weighs about 20 billion times more than the sun.
The star, identified as APM 08279+5255, emits an incredible amount of energy equivalent to the energy produced by a thousand trillion suns.
NASA scientist Matt Bradford highlighted the significance of the discovery. He said that the environment around this star is unusual because it is producing a large amount of water.
He explained that this suggests that water was present even in the earliest moments of the universe.
