The Hubble Space Telescope was able to detect the most distant star ever seen, which was named “Erendelle”, as its light took 12.9 billion years to reach Earth.
According to scientists’ estimates, the size of the star, which competes with the largest known stars, is at least 50 times the size of the sun, and it is also millions of times brighter than it.
It is noteworthy that the previous star, which set records, was also monitored by the “Hubble” telescope in 2018, but it was present in a universe dating back 4 billion years, compared to only about 900 million years for “Erndel” after the Big Bang, according to experts.
“At first, we didn’t believe” what the telescope had observed, lead author Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said in a statement. Welch took on the task of naming this star and named it “Erindel”, which means “morning star” in Old English.
The researcher explained that the star “has existed for a long time to the extent that it may not have been made of the same materials as the stars around us today, and that conducting studies about this star will open the way for knowing more about a certain period of the universe that we do not know, but it led to everything we know today.” .
This star will therefore represent 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 “Erindle” 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 distinguishing a specific star. 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 body’s light.
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 this rare alignment is expected to continue in the coming years.
Source: sites