2023-08-12 04:00:16
In March 2022, the famous Hubble Space Telescope detected the most distant star ever observed in the Universe.
A huge galactic cluster (left) magnifies light from the most distant star detected in the Universe (right).
Crédit d’image: NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Coe, B. Welch. Traitement de l’image: Z. Levay.
Since then, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has given us an even more detailed view of this ancient star, revealing it as an enormous star (A star is an autonomously light-emitting celestial object, similar to a… ) type B, more than twice as hot as the Sun and regarding one million (One million (1,000,000) is the natural number that follows nine hundred and ninety-nine…) times as luminous . Baptized WHL0137-LS, or “Earendel”, its light (Light is all the electromagnetic waves visible to the eye…) that we perceive today began its journey (A journey is a movement made towards a more or less distant point for a personal purpose…) 12.9 billion years ago, or less than a billion (One billion (1,000,000,000) is the natural number following nine hundred. ..) years following the Big Bang (The Big Bang is the dense and hot time that the universe experienced there is…). With the continuing expansion of the Universe, Earendel today lies at a distance of 28 billion light-years from Earth.
The detection of this so distant star was possible thanks to its position behind a “torsion of space-time (The notion of space-time was introduced in the early 1900s and taken up…)”, created by a huge cluster of galaxies (A cluster of galaxies is the association of more than a hundred galaxies linked together by…). This configuration magnified Earendel’s light through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing (Gravitational lenses distort the image one receives from an astronomical object like…), as a NASA statement explains.
Image of the massive star cluster WHL0137-08 captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Image Credit: NASA
The galactic cluster, located between us and Earendel, has such an impressive mass that it distorts the very fabric of space, producing a magnifying glass effect. Thanks to this natural lens, the researchers were able to capture the rays emitted by Earendel. The image also revealed a potential colder, red stellar companion orbiting Earendel.
With a main mirror six times more powerful than that of the Hubble telescope, the JWST is able to capture longer and weaker wavelengths of light. Thanks to this technology (The word technology has two meanings of fact:), the JWST has contributed to countless discoveries during its first year of operation. Despite the detection of other distant stars, Earendel remains the most distant on record.
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