The Hubble Telescope discovers the farthest star ever observed

The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the most distant star ever observed. It was called the Earendel and its light traveled for 12.9 billion years to reach us. Rivaling the largest known stars, scientists estimate its mass to be at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times brighter than it.

L’étoile détenant le précédent record avait elle aussi été observée par Hubble, en 2018. Mais cette dernière existait dans un univers alors vieux de 4 milliards d’années, contre seulement environ 900 millions d pour’annselées Big, a researchers.

“At first, we can hardly believe it.”, in a press release, said the lead author of this work, Brian Welch, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US. It was he who had the privilege of naming this star: Earendel means “Morning Star” In Old English.

This star will therefore be a prime target for the new James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently being calibrated in space. James Webb will be observing this new star this year, James Webb said in a press release for the European Space Agency (ESA), which operates the telescope with NASA.