NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has created a remarkable new point of reference: detecting the light of a star that existed in the first billions of years after the birth of the Big Bang universe – the most distant single star ever seen. The find is a huge leap back in time from the previous one-star record holder. was discovered by Hubble in 2018. This star existed when the universe was about 4 billion years old, or 30 percent of its current age. The recently discovered star is so far away that it took 12.9 billion years for its light to reach Earth, so we see it as it was when the universe was only 7 percent of its current age. The smallest objects we have seen before at such a great distance are star clusters embedded in early galaxies. “We hardly believed it at first, it was much farther away than the previous farther, higher redshift star,” said astronomer Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of the paper, which describes the discovery in the journal Nature. Scientists use the word “redshift” because as the universe expands, light from distant objects stretches or “shifts” to longer, redder wavelengths as it travels toward us. “Normally at these distances, entire galaxies look like small smudges, with light from millions of stars mixing with each other,” Welch said. “The galaxy that hosts this star has been magnified and deformed by the gravitational lens into a long crescent that we called the Sunrise.” After studying the galaxy in detail, Welch found that a feature is an extremely large star named Earendel, which means “morning star” in Old English. The discovery promises to open an uncharted era of very early star formation. “Earendel existed so long ago that it may not have all the same raw materials as the stars around us today,” Welch explained. “The study of Arendel will be a window into an age of the universe that we are not familiar with, but that has led to everything we know.” “It’s like reading a really interesting book, but we started with the second chapter and now we’ll have a chance to see how it all started,” Welch said. POPULATION: Scientists discover a quantum imprint in the gravity of the black hole that finally solves the Hawking paradox
When the stars are aligned
The research team estimates that Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times brighter, competing with the most massive stars known. Appropriations: NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU) and Dan Coe (STScI) But even such a bright, very massive star would be impossible to see at such a great distance without the help of natural magnification from a huge cluster of galaxies, WHL0137-08, sitting between us and Arendel. The mass of the galaxy cluster distorts the fabric of space, creating a powerful natural magnifying glass that distorts and greatly amplifies light from distant objects behind it. RELATED: A giant planet was found hidden in public view Thanks to its rare alignment with the Galaxy Magnifying Glass, the Earendel star appears directly or very close to a ripple in the fabric of space. This ripple, which is defined in optics as “caustic”, provides maximum magnification and brightness. The result is proportional to the wavy surface of a pool that creates patterns of bright light at the bottom of the pool on a sunny day. The ripples on the surface act as lenses and focus the sunlight on the maximum brightness on the pool floor. Check out the excited scientists in a Reuters video below… [Note: GNN does not endorse any ads that may show with the video] This caustic makes the Earendel star emerge from the general glow of its galaxy. Its brightness is magnified a thousand times or more. At this point, astronomers are unable to determine if Earendel is a binary star, although most massive stars have at least one smaller companion star.
Webb Confirmation
Astronomers expect the Earendel to remain extremely large for years to come. It will be observed by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope. Webb’s high sensitivity to infrared light is necessary to learn more about Earendel, because its light is stretched (shifted to red) at longer infrared wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe. SEE: Astronaut brings ashes and photos of 9/11 victim into space to fulfill his life dream of orbiting NASA “With Webb we expect to confirm that Earendel is indeed a star, as well as measure its brightness and temperature,” said Dan Coe, co-author of the Baltimore Space Telescope Science Institute, who made the discovery using the data. collected. These details will limit its type and stage in the stellar life cycle, with scientists expecting it to be a “rare, huge metal-poor star,” Coe said. Earendel’s composition will be of great interest to astronomers because it was formed before the universe was filled with heavy elements produced by successive generations of giant stars. If subsequent studies find that Earendel consists only of primordial hydrogen and helium, it would be the first evidence of the legendary Population III stars, which are supposed to be the first stars to be born after the Big Bang. Although the probability is small, Welch admits that it is tempting. “With Webb, we can see stars even further away from Arendel, which would be incredibly exciting,” Weltz said. “We will go as far back as we can. “I would love to see Webb break Earedel’s distance record.” SHARE Astronomical Discovery on Social Media…
