The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected the most distant star ever seen.
The star, named Earendel, meaning “morning star,” lies 12.9 billion light-years from Earth and is estimated to be at least 50 times the mass of the sun and millions of times brighter, NASA announced Wednesday.
“Studying Earendel will be a window into an era of the universe that we are unfamiliar with, but that led to everything we do know,” said Brian Welch, an astronomer and lead author of the paper describing the discovery. “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.”
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Though it’s not known how long Earendel has existed, NASA estimates it was within the first billion years after the universe’s birth.
Earendel will continue shining for years to come, and experts will observe the star next with the James Webb Space Telescope to learn more and measure its brightness and temperature, according to NASA.
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The Hubble Space Telescope is part of an international partnership with NASA and the European Space Agency, operating out of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
