Astronomers announced in March 2022 the discovery of The farthest known starHubble Space Telescope image. The name Earendel was derived from the old English word for morning star.
JWST’s Near-infrared Camera, or NIRCam, and its NIRSpec spectrometer analyzed the same star to reveal more information.
Earendel looks like a massive B type star. This puts it in the Main Sequence evolutionaryly, meaning it is a hydrogen-burning stellar.
Comparing it to the Sun, this star is twice as bright and a million-times hotter. Unlike many massive stars of its kind, astronomers think that it may be accompanied by another star. They are so close and at such a distance (around thirteen billion light years) that it is difficult to tell them apart.
The spectra (i.e. The colors of the star’s light hint at a possible companion. The companion should be revealed by further studies, using the magnifying power of the gravitational lenses and more detailed observations with NIRCam.
Earendel’s light was first produced 900 millions years ago. Big Bang. The gravitational lenses that revealed the Earendel magnify it by a factor 4,000.
Astronomers now want to know if the star was among the first to ever be born. If this is the case, then its spectrum would reveal that its chemical composition is mostly hydrogen and Helium.
If the star is of a second generation, then its light will show some other properties. Rigel and Beta Centauri are also examples of this kind of blue supergiant.
Earendel’s home in the Sunrise Arc
The host galaxy of this star appears to us as an elongated crescent-shaped streak of light.
Gravitational lensing is responsible for the smearing. It’s caused by a galaxy cluster named WHL0137-8. The NIRCam image shows a lot of detail in this distant galaxy. There are creches, where the stars of tomorrow are born. Some of these stars are very young, younger than five million.
Also, the galaxy contains many star clusters that are well into their evolution. One of the clusters is approximately 10 million old. It could still exist in our modern Universe.
This cluster provides astronomers with some fascinating clues as to the globular globules that are abounding in our Milky Way. Some of these clusters could have formed around WHL0137-8.
Interesting, the JWST image shows more detail on the lensing effect of the distant galaxy. Earendel is located along a “ripple”, produced by the lensing.
This is how it looks when separated from its galaxy host. JWST’s NIRSpec infrared spectrometer also took data. This gives astronomers greater details about Earendel’s distance and its host galaxy.
Gravitational lensing can help you see more distant stars
JWST detected distant stars with its infrared sensors. Earendel is the current record holder in distance. There are still many observations to make.
Eventually, the astronomers will hope to find the Holy Grail in astronomy: The very first star to ever shine.
The earliest objects that we can see today could have been formed as little as 100 million years after Big Bang.
These stars were probably massive and very luminous. They heated and ionized gasses around them as they appeared out of the Cosmic Dark Ages. They produced heavier chemical substances in their hydrogen-burning centers as they evolved and died.
After they die, they scatter these materials in space, resulting in the formation of new stars and planets.
Their lives and lifestyles can tell us much about the conditions of the newborn Universe, including the distribution of matter. dark matterThe early epochs are the earliest epochs in cosmic time.
This article was first published by Universe Today. You can read the Original article.
