Caltech-Led Astronomers Discover the Largest and Most Distant Reservoir of Water

This artist's concept illustrates a quasar, or feeding black hole, similar to APM 08279+5255, where astronomers discovered huge amounts of water vapour.

Gas and dust likely form a torus around the black hole, with clouds of charged gas above and below.

X-rays emerge from the centre, while dust throughout the torus emits infrared radiation. While this figure shows the quasar's torus approximately edge-on, the torus around APM 08279+5255 is likely positioned face-on from our point of view.