December 19, 2008

'Wet' Early Universe: Water Vapor Detected At Record Distance

Scientists have used the 100 m Effelsberg radio telescope to detect water at the greatest distance from Earth so far. The water vapor was discovered in a quasar which corresponds to a light travel time of 11.1 billion years, a time when the Universe was only a fifth of the age it is today. The water vapor is thought to exist in clouds of dust and gas that feed the supermassive black hole at the center of the distant quasar. The detection was later confirmed by high-resolution interferometric observations with the Expanded Very Large Array.[...]

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