Water in the Very Early Universe
Okay, now this is a really interesting result.
Abundant water from primordial supernovae at cosmic dawn
The claim is that the hypothetical Population III stars, the very earliest generation of stars in the universe, could have seeded the interstellar medium with vast amounts of water. This might have led to the formation of rocky, water-bearing planets – possible abodes for life – as early as 200 million years after the Big Bang. Long before galaxies really started taking shape, certainly long before the Milky Way began to form.
Take it with a grain of salt, of course. We don’t have proof that Population III stars of the kind modeled here ever actually existed. Still, this suggests we might be able to push the start date for biological life in the universe back by a lot. I may need to rethink the deep back-story for the Human Destiny setting . . .