Astronomers have studied ancient molecular clouds in the Milky Way galaxy that reveal that the existence of water in the universe came to be much earlier that previously thought, some one billion years after the Big Bang event.

However, the basic elements of water formations is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom which are elements heavier than helium that are thought to first formed inisde stars and not during the Big Bang.

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The first generation of stars where thought to have formed longer than regular stars and even longer to become mature and die meaning heavy elements such as oxygen would have formed from stellar winds and supernovae much more later.

Since the basic elements of water molecules will have taken some time to form, astronomers thought that for oxygen to disperse throughout space and then attach itself to hydrogen happened much later in the universe's timeline.

However, this new study claims that the abundance of water occured only a billion years after the universe's first light came to be.

According to Avi Loeb from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, researchers analyzed the chemistry of young molecular clouds that contains a thosuand times less oxygen than the sun, surprisingly, water vapor is as abundant as in our galaxy. 

The first generation of stars appeared some 100 million years after the Big Bang and were massive giants and highly unstable. These stars rapidly burnt out their hydrogen fuel and exploding into supernovae. These cosmic interstellar explosions gave birth to heavier elements in the universe that made pockets of gas that are rich in elements but poor in oxygen.

However, even if these gas clouds were low in oxygen, this became the perfect environment for the birth of water molecules possessing temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit that enabled oxygen atoms to combine with abundant hydrogen in the gas clouds.

According to Shmuel Bialy from Tel Aviv University, these temperatures were highly likely since the universe was warmer compared to today and the gas clouds were unable to cool down.

This new study reveals that even if the universe was relatively young, it had emitted enough elements to nurture an environment abundant with water even when gas clouds are depleted of oxygen. This unusual set of circumstances encouraged the formation of planets where water is already present.

This study is published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Tagswater in the universe, Big Bang, water first appeared in the universe, water universe first one billion years, Milky Way