Hubble 'whispered' with the appearance of the Web telescope... The most distant star 12.9 billion light-years away

Breaking the record of ‘Icarus’ 9 billion light-years away

Image of Arendelle captured by the Hubble Telescope (arrow in box)

[SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU), Dan Coe (STScI)
IMAGE PROCESSING: NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI) 제공/ 재판매 및 DB 금지] [email protected]

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Nam-seok Um = The Hubble Space Telescope captured the starlight of an ancient star about 12.9 billion light-years from Earth.

This is the most distant starlight from an individual star captured so far, and it is evaluated as an important observation that can elucidate the formation process of first-generation stars.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center, a research team led by Dr. Dan Kou of the ‘Space Telescope Science Institute’ (STScI) captured the most distant stars through the Hubble Telescope and published the results in the scientific journal ‘Nature’. ) was published in

Nicknamed ‘Earendel’, which means ‘morning star’ in Old English, the star is about 4 billion light-years farther than Icarus, the most distant star discovered by Hubble in 2018.

Considering the age of the universe, which started with the Big Bang, is about 13.8 billion years, Icarus is a star that existed 30% of the time and Arendelle 7% of the time.

The farther away a celestial body is, the more the wavelength of light is biased toward red and the redshift value increases. Icarus was announced as 1.5 and Arendelle as 6.2.

At the distance where Arendelle was discovered, only star clusters within the galaxy have been observed so far.

Brian Welch, the first author of the thesis, a doctoral candidate for astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said, “At this distance, even galaxies look like small specks of light mixed with millions of stars. The galaxy containing Arendelle was observed as a long crescent shape due to the gravitational lensing effect.” he explained. The galaxy can be seen up to 13.4 billion light-years away.

The researchers estimated that Arendelle was at least 50 times more massive and millions of times brighter than the Sun.

However, no matter how massive and bright it is, if it hadn’t caused the gravitational lensing effect that refracted and enlarged Arendelle’s light, ‘WHL0137-08’, a giant galaxy cluster placed between the Earth and Arendelle, would take 12.9 billion years to reach a star. It was pointed out that it would be impossible to observe

The research team said that most of the large-mass stars like Arendelle have at least one companion, but at this stage it is not possible to determine whether they are binary systems.

However, starting this summer, when the ‘James Webb Space Telescope’ (JWST), which can look into the universe through infrared rays, begins in earnest, it will measure whether Arendelle is a real star as well as measure its luminosity and temperature to determine the type of star. It is expected to be able to grasp the stages of evolution, etc.

Arendelle’s composition is of particular interest because it is a star that formed before the universe collapsed and filled with heavier elements. If it is confirmed through subsequent research that it is a star composed purely of hydrogen and helium without any metallic elements, it can be the first evidence of Population III stars, which have only been theoretically suggested as being created right after the Big Bang.

Welch said, “Arendel will be a window into the space age to which we are not accustomed,” he said.

“With the Webb telescope, we could see stars much further away than Arendelle, and I would love to see Webb break the distance record for Arendelle.”