Astronomers have identified the largest and most distant reservoir of water ever observed in the universe, surrounding a supermassive black hole more than 12 billion light years away. The object, known as APM 08279+5255, is a quasar, an extremely luminous galaxy powered by a feeding black hole in its core.
Researchers estimate that the cloud of water vapor around this quasar contains about 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Because of its high redshift of roughly 3.87, scientists are seeing the quasar as it existed over ten billion years ago, when galaxies and black holes were still rapidly forming. The full study was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The discovery was made by two independent research teams. One was led by Matt Bradford at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, while the other was led by Dariusz Lis using the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps. Multiple water vapor spectral lines revealed not just the presence of water, but the immense mass and energetic environment of the gas cloud, as reported by Earth.com.
APM 08279+5255 is classified as a broad absorption line quasar, meaning it produces powerful winds that race outward at thousands of kilometers per second. These winds both feed and regulate the black hole, shaping how the surrounding galaxy evolves. The water vapor exists in hot, dense conditions, unlike the cold water found in typical interstellar clouds.
The quasar appears unusually bright for its distance, and astronomers believe this is partly due to gravitational lensing. A massive foreground galaxy likely bends and magnifies its light, boosting its apparent brightness by a factor of about 40. Even after correcting for this effect, the quasar remains one of the most intrinsically powerful objects ever observed.
Beyond its record breaking water content, the discovery shows that water was already widespread in the early universe. It also suggests that similar extreme objects may be hiding in existing astronomical catalogs, made visible only because gravity amplifies their light.
Scientists say findings like this help refine our understanding of how black holes grow, how galaxies assemble, and how common the building blocks of life may be across cosmic history.