Skip to main content

Webb Reveals Colors of Earendel, Most Distant Star Ever Detected

View Filtered Press Releases View All Press Releases
August 09, 2023 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2023-132
A black background is scattered with small galaxies of different shapes, ranging in color from white to yellow to red. Some galaxies, mostly the redder galaxies, are distorted, appearing to be stretched out or mirror imaged. At the middle right, there is a particularly long, red, thin line stretching from one o’clock to 7 o’clock. This is the Sunrise Arc.

Summary

Observations hint at companion star

Detecting extremely distant stars, or those closest in time to the big bang, can provide insights into the first few chapters of the history of our universe. In 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope broke its own record, and spotted the most distant star yet. This star, nicknamed Earendel, emitted its light within the universe’s first billion years.

Spotting, and confirming, the distance of the star is just the beginning, though. That’s where NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope comes in. Webb’s initial observations of Earendel have revealed insights into the star’s type, and even the galaxy surrounding the star. Future analysis of Webb spectroscopic observations of Earendel and its host galaxy, the Sunrise Arc, could also reveal information about brightness, temperature, and composition.

Full Article

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has followed up on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of the farthest star ever detected in the very distant universe, within the first billion years after the big bang. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument reveals the star to be a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous. The star, which the research team has dubbed Earendel, is located in the Sunrise Arc galaxy and is detectable only due to the combined power of human technology and nature via an effect called gravitational ...

Read More on NASA.gov

Callout: Full Press Release

Visit NASA Science to view the full news release including article text and associated Webb imagery, graphics, scientific visualizations, videos, captions, text descriptions, and other information.

News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.

End callout
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google

Contact our News Team 

Contact our Outreach Office