There's a water reservoir in space with 140 trillion oceans
The largest water reservoir ever found is in space.
Reviewed by the CurioVault curator · 8 October 2026 · Last updated 29 September 2026 · Editorial standards
The largest water reservoir ever found is in space. Around quasar APM 08279+5255, 12 billion light-years away, astronomers found a cloud holding 140 trillion times Earth's ocean water. It surrounds a supermassive black hole powering the quasar, where X-rays and infrared heat the gas to reveal water vapor. Discovered by Caltech teams using the Z-Spec instrument in Hawaii, it shows water existed just 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang. It is proof the ingredients for life were widespread in the early universe, floating as vapor around a cosmic engine.
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