JWST Discovered The Furthest Star Ever Observed!
Summary
This episode explores Earendel, the most distant star ever observed, located 28 billion light-years away. Discovered via gravitational lensing in the RELICS survey, its light was magnified thousands of times by a foreground galaxy cluster. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers identified it as a massive blue star, potentially a first-generation object formed from pristine gas. The discovery offers rare insights into early universe star formation and the origins of galaxies.
Topics discussed
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Introduction: The challenge of seeing distant stars
The limit of telescopes and the power of gravitational lensing
Introducing Earendel: The farthest star ever seen
The RELICS survey and the discovery of Earendel
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The etymology of Earendel and Tolkien's influence
Explaining redshift and cosmic distance
Hubble vs. James Webb: Observing Earendel's infrared light
How gravitational lensing works: Weak vs. Strong lensing
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Caustics and the extreme magnification of Earendel
Analyzing Earendel's properties and binary companion
Stellar classification: A massive Type B star
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Star formation in the early universe vs. today
Implications for first-generation stars and future research
Future surveys and the origin of our cosmic story
Conclusion: Earendel at the edge of observable space-time
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