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Water is the key element without which, life is impossible. It is absolutely pertinent for a living organism to exist. That is precisely why when scientists look for life on other heavenly bodies, they first look for traces of water. Now, researchers from the University of Leeds have been able to spot huge amounts of water in the Taurus constellation.

The water, in Taurus constellation, is currently in the vapor state, and its amount is so huge that it can fill Earth’s oceans two times over! It is speculated that the Taurus constellation is undergoing the process of star-formation which may culminate in the creation of a star as bright as our Sun, and a new planetary system around it.

The current observation, which was made using ESA’s Hershel space observatory, lends hope to the possibility that given the amount of water in the pre-star clouds in the Taurus constellation, the planets that form later may contain water which, in turn, can make life possible.

According to Dr. Paola Caselli from University of Leeds, “Before our observations, the understanding was that all the water was frozen onto dust grains because it was too cold to be in the gas phase and so we could not measure it. Now we will need to review our understanding of the chemical processes in this dense region and, in particular, the importance of cosmic rays to maintain some amount of water vapor.”

Currently, Dr. Caselli explains, the water vapors are rapidly moving towards the center of the clouds, which may mean that the gravitational force has already started acting on them and that we may soon see the formation of a star. What is most significant in the creation of this star is that it has allowed the scientists to view, directly, how water molecules behave in the pre-star-formation phase.

Courtesy: TG Daily

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