NASA announced a new record today. The light that began its journey from a star 12.9 billion years ago has reached the Hubble Space Telescope, making it the furthest star humans have ever seen. That means this particular star existed within the first billion years of the universe's existence. The star has been dubbed Earendel, which is an Old English word for morning star. Earendel is (or was 12 billion years ago) more than 50 times as big as our sun, and millions of times brighter. Since it is so distant and so old, it may be made up of different material than more familiar stars.
The previous record for the most distant star ever seen was a four-billion-year-old star detected in 2018. The new star Earendel is ripe for study, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be focusing on it for more information. Read more about the discovery of Earendel and what it tells us about the early universe at NASA. -via reddit
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Image: NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU), Dan Coe (STScI); Image processing: NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)