The Hubble Space Telescope captured the image. For the first time, we know the farthest star ever seen. Scientists named it Earendel. What does it mean in English? It is “morning star”.
As far away as the beginning
With this discovery an extraordinary new benchmark has been established. Light was detected from a star that existed in the first 1 billion years after the Big Bang. That is, after the big explosion that led to the origin of the Universe. This was reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
“The newly detected star is very far away. So far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth. And it appears to us as it did when the universe was only 7% of its present age. There are smaller objects seen before at almost as great a distance. They are star clusters within primitive galaxies,” explained the U.S. space agency.
This finding was published in the journal Naturehow was this possible? Thanks to the Hubble Gravitational Lensing Reionization Study in Clusters program. It is known as RELICS.
Distinct star
“At first we almost didn’t believe it. It was much farther away than the previous most distant redshift star.” Says astronomer Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is lead author of this research.
According to NASA, Earendel existed so long ago that it is possible that it is different. It may not have had the same raw materials as the stars that surround us today.
“Studying Earendel will be a window into an era of the universe that we’re not familiar with. It is what led to everything we know. Seeing the most distant star ever seen is a great opportunity. It’s like finally getting the first chapter of an incredible story,” Welch said.
