Named Earendel, the most distant known star in the universe was recently captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been on the move since it began sending back images last month. After creating history by taking the deepest image of the universe and taking a picture of the most distant galaxy in the universe, he has now completed another feat. This time, the JWST has captured the image of the most distant known star in the Universe. This star was first discovered earlier this year when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture it in an image. But that image was barely visible. By comparison, the JWST image shows the faint red glow of the star and the star trail it is in. Read on to learn more about the star.
The most distant star in the universe has been named Earendel, after the half-elf seafaring characters in JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series. Officially, the star is known by a more technical name of WHL0137-LS. This image was shared on Tuesday, August 2 by the Cosmic Spring JWST Twitter account, which is run by astronomers who post JWST images. In the tweet, Earendel can be seen as a small red blob in the lower right of the image.
Posting the image, the account wrote: “We are delighted to share the first JWST image of Earendel, the most distant star known in our universe, in focus and magnified by a massive galaxy cluster. It was observed on Saturday by the JWST program 2282”.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures the most distant star in the Universe
Astronomers used a fancy trick known as gravitational lensing to spot the star. Essentially, massive celestial bodies like galaxies and black holes double the light emitted by objects behind them due to their gravitational fields. When this light from more distant stars passes through these massive celestial objects, it acts as if it is passing through the lens of a telescope and is magnified. In this way, even the smallest objects that the telescope might have missed can be captured. Gravitational lenses increase the capabilities of space telescopes.
This is why Earendel, which is 28 billion light years away, was captured by both Hubble and JWST. Although not much is known about this elusive star, we do know that it is located in the constellation Cetus, and the light it emits is thought to arrive approximately 900 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists theorize that Earendel is likely between 50 and 100 solar masses.