Earendel is the most distant star ever detected, and it was discovered by astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The star is so distant that the light we see from it was emitted about 13.4 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. This means that Earendel is one of the first stars to form in the universe.
Earendel is located in the Sunrise Arc galaxy, which is about 13.4 billion light-years away. The star was only visible because of a natural phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object, such as a galaxy cluster, bends the light from more distant objects. In the case of Earendel, the galaxy cluster WHL0137-08 bent the light from the star, making it appear much brighter and closer than it actually is.
The star’s name derives from Old English words that mean “morning star” or “rising light.” The Hubble Space Telescope first spotted Earendel in 2022. Webb’s observations have revealed new insights about the incredibly distant star. Earendel is a massive B-type star about 1 million times more luminous than our sun and more than twice as hot.
The JWST’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument was able to detect Earendel because it is sensitive to infrared light. Infrared light can penetrate through dust and gas, which makes it possible to see objects that would otherwise be invisible in visible light.
Astronomers continue to analyze the data from Webb’s observation to determine the precise distance of the Sunrise Arc galaxy. Earendel is so distant that the starlight glimpsed by the Webb telescope was emitted within the first billion years of the universe. Previous estimates suggest the star is 12.9 billion light-years away from Earth, but given the expansion of the universe and how long the light has traveled to reach us, astronomers believe Earendel is currently 28 billion light-years away.
The discovery of Earendel is a major breakthrough in astronomy. It is the first time that astronomers have been able to see a star from the very early universe. Earendel’s discovery is helping astronomers to better understand how the first stars formed and evolved. It is also helping them to better understand the history of the universe.
The JWST is still in its early stages of operation, but it has already made some amazing discoveries. Earendel is just one of many exciting discoveries that the JWST is sure to make in the years to come. Studying extremely distant stars and galaxies that originated closer to the big bang can fill in gaps astronomers have about the early days of the universe and provide a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy might have looked like billions of years ago.