It is magnified and split into multiple images by the gravitational lensing effect of a foreground galaxy through which its light passes.

[5] Observations in the infrared with the NICMOS high-resolution camera on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) showed that the source was composed of three discrete images.

Measurements with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer and other instruments looked at the distribution of molecules such as CO, CN, HCN[broken anchor], and HCO+ as well as atomic carbon.

[2] From these observations APM 08279+5255 is in a giant elliptical galaxy with large amounts of gas, dust, and an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at its core.

Its high redshift shifts the far-infrared spectrum into millimeter wavelengths where it can be observed from observatories on the ground.

In 2008 and 2009 the intensities of its water vapor spectral lines were measured using the millimeter wave spectrometer Z-Spec at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory.

Its discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the known universe for nearly its entire existence; the radiation was emitted 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang.