Earendel: Webb reveals most distant star ever discovered
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The cutting-edge space observatory, James Webb Telescope, has unveiled a striking image of the farthest star in the early universe.
Hubble Space Telescope first spotted this star, called Earendel, in the Sunrise Arc galaxy last year. Earendel is considered to be one of the most distant stars, existing around one billion years after the Big Bang.
Hubble was able to discover Earendel with the help of a natural cosmic phenomenon called gravitational lensing, which happens when a sizable celestial object in the foreground acts like a lens, distorting the space-time continuum and amplifying light from a farther celestial body.
“Both Hubble and Webb were able to detect Earendel due to its lucky alignment behind a wrinkle in space-time created by the massive galaxy cluster WHL0137-08. The galaxy cluster, located between us and Earendel, is so massive that it warps the fabric of space itself, which produces a magnifying effect, allowing astronomers to look through the cluster like a magnifying glass,” explained NASA’s official release.
Capturing companion stars a difficult task
NASA mentioned that most enormous stars, like Earendel, support a companion in their binary systems.
Nevertheless, the challenge lies in capturing the companion star alongside Earendel due to their proximity, causing them to seem "indistinguishable" in the celestial expanse.
However, astronomers hold the belief that they might have detected subtle indications pointing to the presence of a cooler, more reddish companion star, solely by analyzing the hues exhibited by Earendel.
Webb's NIRCam also furnished novel insights into the galaxy where the star resides, known as the Sunrise Arc. This galaxy holds the distinction of being the most intensely magnified discovery from the initial billion years of the universe.
Within this galaxy, Webb observed a young star-forming region as well as older, already-evolved star clusters that measure just 10 light-years wide.
“On either side of the wrinkle of maximum magnification, which runs right through Earendel, these features are mirrored by the distortion of the gravitational lens,” stated NASA.
The young star-forming region is roughly less than five million years old, while the older star cluster is around 10 million years old.
This gravitationally tethered stellar cluster is probably still in existence at present times. This observation provides insight into the appearance of globular star clusters within our own Milky Way galaxy around 13 billion years ago.
Earendel is a million times brighter
Produced with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument, the image depicts a giant B-type star, which is noted to be hotter than our Sun, and a million times as brilliant.
Our sun is a G-type star with a surface temperature of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius).
NASA reveals that the object has been amplified by at least 4,000 times due to gravitational lensing, thereby allowing Webb to capture this high-resolution image.
Astronomers are now evaluating data on the Sunrise Arc galaxy and Earendel collected by Webb's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument. The extensive examination will be able to provide various measurements, including precise composition and distance estimations for the galaxy.
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