Scientists said they have discovered evidence of water in a galaxy roughly 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, making it one of the most distant discoveries of water in the universe.
The properties of the galaxy, named SPT0311-58, were discovered by scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile. The galaxy had first been discovered at the observatory in 2017.
Not only were water molecules found, but the galaxy where it was found comes from the early parts of the universe, when it was only 780 million years old. Scientists said in 2020 that the universe is 13.8 billion years old.
Sreevani Jarugula, an astronomer at the University of Illinois and lead investigator, said carbon dioxide also was detected in the massive galaxy. With the presence of oxygen and carbon, something Jarugula said is “critical to life,” the galaxy proves molecular life began not too long after the Big Bang, the gigantic explosion that scientists believe led to the rapid expansion of the universe we see today.
“This galaxy is the most massive galaxy currently known at high redshift, or the time when the universe was still very young. It has more gas and dust compared to other galaxies in the early universe, which gives us plenty of potential opportunities to observe abundant molecules and to better understand how these life-creating elements impacted the development of the early universe,” Jarugula said in a statement.
The discovery of water also shows the galaxy had stars already ending their life cycle in such a short time. Hydrogen was developed when the Big Bang happened, but oxygen comes from dying stars.
NASA has said that most stars typically live for billions of years, but these findings indicated that stars in SPT0311-58 went through their life cycle in under 1 billion years. Jarugula said the findings show how far away water can exist from Earth, but it now leaves the question of how stars and galaxies formed so early in the universe.
“Early galaxies are forming stars at a rate thousands of times that of the Milky Way,” Way,” Jarugula said. “Studying the gas and dust content of these early galaxies informs us of their properties, such as how many stars are being formed, the rate at which gas is converted into stars, how galaxies interact with each other and with the interstellar medium, and more.”
Joe Pesce, astrophysicist and director at the National Science Foundation, said the results are “exciting” and could help understand how the universe has evolved into what it is today.
“These molecules, important to life on Earth, are forming as soon as they can, and their observation is giving us insight into the fundamental processes of a universe very much different from today’s,” Pesce said.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Water discovered in galaxy roughly 12.8 billion light years away