Using the NASA Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to spot the farthest single star ever recorded, and they named it Erendel, which means “morning star” in Old English because it existed during the dawn of the universe.
The researchers said that the mass of the blue star is very hot, estimated between 50 and 100 times the mass of our sun, and that it is millions of times brighter. Its light travels for 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, which means that the star was present when the universe was only seven percent of its current age.
Scientists say that Erendel arose about 900 million years after the Big Bang in the beginning of the universe. It belongs to the first generations of stars that date back to a time when the universe was completely different from what it is today.
Prior to this discovery, the farthest single star on record was Icarus, which arose four billion years after Erendel.
Although scientists on Earth can now see the light of Earndel, the star itself is certainly no longer there, because such massive stars It has a relatively short life. It is believed that Erendel existed for perhaps a few hundred million years before dying in a massive explosion known as a supernova.
“Big stars usually live fast and die young,” Welch added.