The Farthest Star Ever Discovered

The Hubble Space Telescope, which was sent into space in 1990, continues to reveal the surprises of the infinite universe with every discovery it makes. Now, the telescope is reported to have detected the most distant star – or possibly star system – ever discovered.

The star, officially named WHL0137-LS, but named Earendel, which means “morning star” or “rising light” in Old English by the astronomers who discovered it, is stated to be from the early times of the formation of the universe. An article on the discovery published in Nature reveals many more interesting information about this ancient star.

8.2 billion years older than Earth and Sun

The way it appears today, just 900 million years after the Big Bang, in the research paper It is stated that it took exactly 12.8 billion years for the light emitted from the Earendel system, which is estimated to be received, to reach Hubble. In addition, the star system, which is stated to be 8.2 billion years older than the Sun and the Earth, is recorded to be 12.1 billion years older than the first animal forms on Earth.

Moreover, Earendel stands out even among the ancient star standards known so far. It is noteworthy that Earendel is 3 billion years older than Icarus, which is 9.4 billion years old, the oldest known star until this discovery. However, it is stated that even the oldest supernovas, which are so easy to detect because they are usually the brightest objects in space, are younger than Earendel.

For the Sunrise arc, the galaxy in which Earendel is located, Johns Hopkins University astronomer and lead author of Nature, Brian Welch, said, “This galaxy is magnified due to the gravitational lensing effect of a massive foreground galaxy cluster and is shaped like a long, thin crescent. he looks tense.”

Earendel can shed light on the early times of the universe

The ancient star Earendel, on which Welch and his team spent three and a half years to understand that it is a star constellation, is the history of the universe. It is estimated that there may be a lot of new information about him. “With distant objects, we see the past of the universe and a time when the universe looked very different than it does today,” Welch said. “We know that galaxies looked different at this early period, and we know that there have been relatively few generations of stars that came before.” he adds.

Stating that stars are ‘factories’ of heavy elements in our universe, formed by the combination of lighter atoms such as hydrogen and helium to form heavier substances such as carbon, oxygen, and even iron through nuclear fusion, Welch said that Earendel’s history of the universe He also notes that in its early phase, it probably had very few materials heavier than helium in its system. “Studying this lensed star in detail gives us a new window into what stars looked like in the early days and how they differed from stars in the nearby universe,” Welch explains.

However, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, which will start operations soon, it is expected to understand whether Earendel is a single star system or a cluster of star systems. In addition, it is thought that information such as whether Earendel is a single star or a binary system, its temperature and mass can be learned.