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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has set an incredible new benchmark: detecting starlight that existed in the first billion years after the birth of the universe in the big bang.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id – Space Telescope Hubble NASA has set a remarkable new benchmark with its success in detecting starlight that existed the first billion years after the birth of the inner universe big bangthe most distant individual stars seen to date.
The discovery is a major leap back in time from the previous record holder for a single star detected by Hubble in 2018. The star existed when the universe was about 4 billion years old, or 30 percent of its current age, which astronomers refer to as “red shift 1.5”.
Scientists use the word “redshift” because as the universe expands, light from distant objects is stretched or “shifted” to longer, redder wavelengths as it moves toward us.
The newly detected star is so far away that its light takes 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, looking to us as it did when the universe was only 7 percent of its current age, at a redshift of 6.2. The smallest objects previously seen at great distances were star clusters, embedded within early galaxies.
“We almost couldn’t believe it at first, it was much further away from the previous most distant star, the highest redshift,” said astronomer Brian Welch of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of the paper describing the discovery and the results have been published in the journal. Nature on March 30, 2022 with the title “A highly magnified star at redshift 6.2”.
This discovery was made from data collected during the program RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey) Hubble, led by co-author Dan Coe at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), is also in Baltimore.
“Typically at this distance, entire galaxies look like tiny smudges, with light from millions of stars converging,” Welch said, as reported. Tech Explorist. “The galaxy that hosts this star has been enlarged and distorted by gravitational lenses into a long crescent moon that we named the Rising Sun Arc.”
NASA, ESA, B. Welch (JHU), D. Coe (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)
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Starlight that existed in the first billion years after the birth of the Universe in the Big Bang (at a redshift of 6.2) – the most distant single star ever seen. This set the primary target for the James Webb Space Telescope in its first year.
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After studying the galaxy in detail, Welch determined that one feature was a highly magnified star named Earendel, which means “morning star” in Old English. The discovery promises to open an uncharted era of very early star formation.
“Earendel has been around for so long that it probably didn’t have all the same raw materials as the stars around us today,” explains Welch. “Studying Earendel will be a window into an era of the universe we are not familiar with, but it leads to all that we know. It seems we have read a very interesting book, but we start with the second chapter, and now we will have the opportunity to see how it all turned out. started,” Welch said.
The research team estimates that Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times brighter, rivaling the most massive star known. But even a very bright, very high-mass star could not have been seen at such great distances without the aid of natural magnification by the massive galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, which lies between us and Earendel. The mass of the galaxy cluster bends the fabric of space, creating a powerful natural magnifying glass that distorts and amplifies light from distant objects behind it.
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Astronomers hope that Earendel will remain in its magnified view for years to come. It will be observed by the Space Telescope James Webb NASA. Webb’s high sensitivity to infrared light was needed to learn more about Earendel.
“With Webb, we hope to confirm that Earendel is indeed a star, and measure its brightness and temperature,” Coe said. These details will narrow down the types and stages in a star’s life cycle. “We also hope to find galaxies Sunrise Arc which lack the heavy elements that form in the next generation of stars. This would suggest that Earendel is a rare metal-poor star.”
Earendel’s composition will be of great interest to astronomers, because it formed before the universe was filled with heavy elements produced by successive generations of massive stars. If follow-up studies find that Earendel is composed only of primordial hydrogen and helium, it will be the first evidence for the legendary Population III star, which is hypothesized to be the first star born after big bang. While the odds are slim, Welch admits it’s just as exciting.
“With Webb, we may see stars further away than Earendel, which will be very interesting. We will retreat as far as we can. I would love to see Webb break the distance record for Earendel,” concluded Welch.
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