ALMA Telescope Detects Water in Galaxy 12 Billion Light-Years Away; Here’s What It Means

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Telescope found water in a galaxy 12.8 billion light years from Earth. The said liquid is one of the scientists' most sought-after chemicals due to its life-building elements.

Inverse said Astronomers discovered the molecules in a vast galaxy that dates back to when the cosmos was only 780 million years old, or around only five percent of its current age (13.8 billion years old).

Researchers reported the study, "Molecular Line Observations in Two Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at Z = 6.9," in the Astrophysical Journal.

ALMA Finds Water in Galaxy Billions of Light Years Away From Earth

ALMA has discovered water in a galaxy far beyond our own. Scientists explore the life-giving ingredient of water on various planets. The telescope has assisted experts in finding out from a long-studied galaxy and planet 12.88 billion light-years distant from Earth.

Daily Mail said ALMA astronomers found the planet in 2017, and now the team has revealed that it has water and carbon monoxide on its surface, indicating that it has more than meets the eye. Experts may observe the planet in the SPT0311-58 galaxy, one of the deepest galaxies astronomers ever identified. ALMA scientists identified SPT0311-58, which comprises two galaxies, in 2017 at its Epoch of Reionization location, or time.

Researchers think the two galaxies are merging. Their fast star formation depletes their gas, star-forming fuel, and transforms them into massive elliptical galaxies.

Phys.org, quoting ALMA Program Director at the National Science Foundation and astronomer Joe Pesce, said this fascinating discovery contributes to a growing collection of studies of the early cosmos.

ALSO READ: Hubble Space Telescope Found Two Interacting Galaxies 200 Million Light-Years Away

Pesce also mentioned that these molecules essential to life on Earth are evolving as swiftly as possible. Their research offers insight into the underlying processes of a planet that is significantly different from our own.

ALMA's Capabilities

ALMA's finding has revealed that there are planets similar to Earth in composition or have the same components, which might indicate that they support life. However, there is no way of knowing what else the planet possesses on its surface.

In recent years, the telescope has become well-known for its sophisticated findings that have witnessed deep space and its phenomena. The team is famous for using unconventional approaches to get outcomes and research to learn more about the cosmos around us.

According to the European Southern Observatory, ALMA is the world's most powerful observatory for investigating the cold Universe.

By providing detailed images of stars and planets forming in gas clouds near our Solar System and detecting distant galaxies forming at the edge of the observable Universe, the telescope allows astronomers to answer some of the most fundamental questions about our cosmic origins.

The first scientific observations with a partial array were taken in 2011, even though ALMA was formally inaugurated in 2013.

ESO and its international partners use ALMA Telescope to study light from some of the Universe's coldest objects high in the Chilean Andes on the Chajnantor plateau.