“Hubble” has a simple ability to capture infrared radiation (NASA/Getty)
The Hubble Space Telescope has detected the most distant star ever seen, and it was named Earendel, as its light took 12.9 billion years to reach Earth.
Scientists estimate that the size of the star that competes with the largest known stars is at least fifty times the size of the sun, and it is millions of times brighter than it.
As for the previous star, which set records, it was also detected by the Hubble telescope in 2018, but it was present in a universe dating back four billion years, compared to only about 900 million years for “Erndel” after the Big Bang, according to experts.
The discovery was published on Wednesday in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
Twinkle, twinkle farthest star ⭐@NASAHubble just smashed records by observing the farthest individual star ever seen. Its light took 12.9 billion years to reach us—so we’re seeing how it looked when the universe was less than a billion years old!
More: https://t.co/vVRHSAOf1r pic.twitter.com/I4QDxL9vKb
– NASA (@NASA) March 30, 2022
“We didn’t believe at first” what the telescope had observed, lead report author Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said in a statement. Welch took the task of naming this star, and named it “Erindl”, which means “morning star” in Old English.
The researcher explained that the star “has been around for a long time, to the point that it may not have been made of the same materials as the stars around us today.” He added, “Conducting studies about this star will open the way for us to learn more about a certain period of the universe that we do not know but that led to everything we know today.”
This star will therefore be a major target for the new “James Webb” space telescope, whose capabilities are currently being tested in space. The European Space Agency, which operates the telescope along with the US Space Agency (NASA), indicated in a statement that “James Webb” will monitor “Erndel” starting this year.
Like the sound of an object fading away as it moves away, the wave of light expands, and travels from the apparent frequency to the naked eye and then to infrared radiation.
Unlike Hubble, which has a simple ability to capture infrared radiation, James Webb will focus on light waves, which will enable it to detect more distant objects.
Until today, only groups of stars have been observed at these distances, without the possibility of discerning a star specifically. But the new star benefited from a cosmic help, represented by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, a group of galaxies located between us and the star that acts as a magnifying lens to expand the light of the object.
The European Space Agency compared this effect to ripples on the surface of the water, which in good weather can emit extended beams of light on the floor of a swimming pool. Astronomers say that this rare alignment is expected to continue in the coming years.
(France Brush)