2023-08-13 11:31:59
Astronomy
The most distant star ever seen shines like a million suns
The James Webb telescope has spotted a star whose light took 12.9 billion years to reach us, a record observation.
PostedAugust 13, 2023, 01:31 PM
Earendel is a tiny red dot lost in the middle of the universe but so bright.
NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Coe (STScI/AURA for ESA; Johns Hopkins University), B. Welch (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; University of Maryland, College Park). Image processing: Z. Levay.
It’s a tiny speck, lost among spots much bigger and brighter than it. But this point is the farthest star ever seen by human beings. It was photographed last year by the James Webb Space Telescope and its light took 12.9 billion years to reach us.
This means that it was shining less than a billion years following the Big Bang. Named Earendel, it would be located today 28 billion light years from us due to the expansion of the universe, explains Space.com. The various instruments on board the telescope have enabled scientists to obtain several pieces of information regarding this distant star.
There are plenty of extremely bright stars, but you have to look for a tiny dot in a tiny red arc to distinguish Earendel. he smaller dots on either side of Earendel are two images of an older, more established star cluster, estimated to be at least 10 million years old. Astronomers have determined that this star cluster is gravitationally bound and will likely persist to the present day.
NASA, ESA, CSA, D.Coe (STScI) and A. Pagan (STScI)
“This is a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun and regarding a million times as luminous,” he said. communiqué NASA on August 9. It was named following a character by Tolkien, in “Le Silmarillon” (Eärendil in French version), a half-elf wearing a silmaril (jewel) on his forehead which will become a star: a name therefore well found for this star if distant.
Astronomers believe it might be a double star system and Earendel would be accompanied by a cooler, redder companion. The previous record was the observation of a star that shone 4 billion years following the Big Bang, 3 billion years later than Earendel.
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