July 26, 2011: Quasar Contains Largest Water Reservoir In The Universe

H2O, anyone?

Astronomers have discovered a reservoir containing 140 trillion times the amount of water in all the Earth's oceans, making it the largest mass of water ever detected in the universe.

"The environment around this quasar is unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water," Matt Bradford, a Caltech visiting associate and NASA scientist said in a press release. "It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times."

Quasars are extremely luminous and compact galactic nuclei fueled by a central and supermassive black hole.

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.

from here

All that water down the drain.

Even with all that water and energy...

"THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

I wonder if we could hook up a hose?

So much water, so little whisky :(

???? srsly? maybe you just need better whiskey