{"id":2077,"date":"2008-12-17T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2008-12-17T13:07:03","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T18:07:03","slug":"water-water-everywhere-and-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2008\/12\/17\/water-water-everywhere-and-when\/","title":{"rendered":"Water, Water Everywhere… and When"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even 11.1 Billion Years Ago<\/span><\/h2>\n

Water appears to be ubiquitous throughout the universe. Which is to say that astronomers spot traces of water vapor in various parts of the universe like other planets, moons, and throughout our galaxy. But, often enough, astronomers find H2O vapor in water masers. These are beamed radiation sources that are similar to lasers, but radiate at microwave wavelengths. These masers are often found in regions where hot, dense dust and gas are coalescing — like galaxy cores and starbirth regions.<\/p>\n

So, astronomers have wondered how early in the universe water vapor might have existed. Another way to ask that question is to wonder how far away the most distant water vapor could be “seen” by our telescopes?\u00a0 Water masers showing vapor have been found in galaxies close to ours, of course. But, what about more distant onces?<\/p>\n

\"The
The quad gravitational lens MG J0414 + 0534, courtesy of the extended Very Large Baseline Interferometer radio array (eVLBI).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most recent answer came from data taken with the Effelsberg 100-meter radio telescope in Germany (operated by the Max Planck Institut for Radio Astronomy). Graduate student Violette Impellizzeri used the telescope to study the quasar MG J0414 +0534, which lies about 11.1 billion light-years away from us. We see it here in radio wavelengths that have been gravitationally lensed by an intervening galaxy (that is, the wavelengths of radiation and light from the more distant quasar are being bent by the gravitational influence of a massive galaxy that lies between us and the quasar).<\/p>\n

\n

The signature of water vapor was spotted in the radio data taken by Impellizzeri. It probably exists in clouds of dust and gas that feed a supermassive black hole at the center of the quasar. The detection of the water was later confirmed by observations made with the Expanded Very Large Array.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Make no mistake about it, this is a discovery of water in the very early universe — at a time when the universe was a fifth of its current age. It means that water may have been much more abundant in those early times. Because water masers are active close to galaxy cores, these masers may tell us something about the evolution of black holes and galaxy cores back at a time in the universe’s early history when galaxies were first forming.\u00a0 I don’t know about you, but I find it fascinating just how something we take so much for granted (and is so commonplace) as water can help us get a look at the earliest epochs of cosmic history.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in reading more about this research, there’s a paper coming out in the December 18, 2009 issue of Nature magazine. Here’s the citation:<\/em><\/p>\n

A gravitationally lensed water maser in the early Universe,<\/span> C.M. Violette Impellizzeri, John P. McKean, Paola Castangia, Alan L. Roy, Christian Henkel, Andreas Brunthaler, & Olaf Wucknitz, 2008, Nature (18 December issue)<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even 11.1 Billion Years Ago Water appears to be ubiquitous throughout the universe. Which is to say that astronomers spot traces of water vapor in various parts of the universe like other planets, moons, and throughout our galaxy. But, often enough, astronomers find H2O vapor in water masers. These are beamed radiation sources that are … Continue reading Water, Water Everywhere… and When<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[17,327,326,272,325],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWater, Water Everywhere... and When - The Spacewriter's Ramblings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2008\/12\/17\/water-water-everywhere-and-when\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Water, Water Everywhere... and When - The Spacewriter's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even 11.1 Billion Years Ago Water appears to be ubiquitous throughout the universe. 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