Hubble has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star⭐️ that existed within the first billion years after the universe's birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to date! (1/7) 🧵 
The newly detected star—Earendel—is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it did when the universe was only 7% of its current age. (2/7)
"We almost didn't believe it at first, it was so much farther than the previous most-distant, highest redshift star," said astronomer Brian Welch of @JHUPhysicsAstro. "The galaxy hosting this star has been magnified and distorted by gravitational lensing...” (3/7)
The high-mass star would be impossible to see at such a great distance without the aid of natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, sitting between us and Earendel. The alignment with the magnifying galaxy cluster makes the star appear to us. (4/7)
Astronomers expect that Earendel will remain highly magnified for years to come. It will be observed by #NASAWebb. The telescope’s high sensitivity to infrared light is needed to learn more about the star. (5/7)
"With Webb we expect to confirm Earendel is indeed a star, as well as measure its brightness and temperature," said @spacetelescope’s Dan Coe. (6/7)
“It's like we've been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the second chapter, and now we will have a chance to see how it all got started," said Welch. Read on: hubblesite.org/contents/news-… (7/7)
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