Today, the cosmic “Sornica” is 28 billion light-years away.
- The Hubble Space Telescope has broken the record for the most distant star known.
- He captured the light emitted by the body in the early youth of our universe.
- Today, the star or its remnants are 28 billion light-years from Earth.
- This is almost double the previous record holder.
The deeper we look into space, the farther we look into the distant past. For example, during the first billion years of the universe’s existence, we were able to observe the light emitted by bodies. These were the first galaxies or quasars, the giant, highly radioactive parent matter of galaxy clusters. But never about the stars.
Learning changes that Published In the scientific journal Nature. It refers to the observation of a star that existed during the time of the oldest quasars and galaxies.
New record
The title of the farthest star observed Until recently, it belonged to the blue supernatant LS1. The light observed by astronomers was given to the body about 4.4 billion years after the Big Bang. Today, the star, or more precisely its remnants, is located about 14.5 billion years from Earth.
However, the Hubble Space Telescope broke that record. In his images of distant galaxies, astronomers detected the light of an individual star, WHL0137-LS.
The observed radiation left the body 900 million years after the Big Bang. The remnants of today’s star must be about 28 billion light-years away from our planet.
Space magnifying glass
At this distance, giant galaxies have been identified so far. The key to identifying a star was a telescope-like universe. Gravity lens.
This is a phenomenon in which the light around the anterior material surface is curved around the lens. It acts as a magnifying glass and allows astronomers to magnify images of distant objects.
In this case, a large group of galaxies, WHL0137-08, also helped astronomers.
“Normally, galaxies look like tiny spots in this distance because light from millions of stars combine with each other,” said Brian Welch, a study author at the University of Baltimore.
The researcher added that the image of the galaxy located at WHL0137-LS was not only magnified by a gravitational lens, but also shaped into an elongated crescent shape.
A more detailed study of the distorted image, however, revealed a bright spot representing a very bright star.
Giant and shiny
Scientists have named the star Earendel, which is the old English word for sornica or morning star.
Statistics show that Erendel is at least 50 times larger and 100 times more massive than the Sun. And a few million times brighter.
Irendal image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Source: NASA
“Erendel’s research will provide a window into an era with which we are not yet familiar with the evolution of the universe,” Welch said.
Due to its enormous weight, Erendel exploded into a supernova several million years after its formation. The following is true for stars: the more matter, the shorter the lifespan – the shorter the physical stars, the longer they “live”.
How does that lie so far?
Although Erandale’s light traveled to Hubble’s telescope 12.9 billion years ago, due to the expansion of the universe, its remains are now 28 billion light years away from Earth.
The speed of light is only the limit for the motion of matter in space. This does not limit the rate of expansion of the space. Therefore, during the period of exponential growth during the so-called cosmic inflation, the universe could expand at a rate above light.
Although the universe is 13.8 billion years old, the boundaries of the observable universe are currently 46.5 billion years from Earth. Its average is 93 billion light years.
The first deputy?
According to astronomers, Erendel represents the first observation of a representative of the imaginary stellar population III so far.
This includes first-generation players after the Big Bang. They were characterized by extreme dimensions, exceptional brightness, and an almost zero metal content. They contained almost no hydrogen and no helium.
The structure of Erendel should be examined in the near future through the observations of James Webb’s more powerful space telescope.
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