Black Hole Holds Universe's Biggest Water SupplyTwo teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever found in the universe. It's 12 billion light years away, and holds at least 140 trillion times the amount of water in all the Earth's oceans combined.
It manifests itself as a colossal mass of water vapor, hidden in the distant APM 08279+5255 quasar. Quasars are bright and violent galactic nuclei fueled by a supermassive black hole at their center.
This quasar holds a black hole that's 20 billion times more massive than the sun, and after gobbling down dust and gas it belches out as much energy as a thousand trillion suns. The water vapor is spread around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light years.
populated with time/space fluctuation-adapted sea life!
Or, you know maybe Kent put something smudgy on the lens again.
Any galaxy that size would have about the same amount of water, but 12 billion years ago it was on a lot fewer planets.