A new study shows that the most distant single star is less than 1 billion years old.
Earendel, the star nicknamed by the scientists, is at least 50 times the mass.
The light from this newfound star has taken over 12 billion years to reach us, just as it did when the universe was about 900 million years old. When the universe was about 4 billion years old, it was the most distant single star that existed.
The finding gives us an opportunity to study a star in detail in the early universe, according to the study lead author.
The Hubble Space Telescope has the best images of all time.
Earendel is a brilliant star, but it would be hard to see from Earth. Previously, clusters of stars were the smallest objects seen.
Earendel was found with the help of a huge galaxy cluster. A powerful natural magnifying glass was used to amplify the light from Earendel because of the warped fabric of space and time. The light from Earendel has been distorted into a long crescent by the lensing.
Earendel stood out from the general glow of its home galaxy because of the curve in spacetime that provided maximum brightness when the star appeared directly on or extremely close to it. The ripples on the surface of the pool act as a lens and focus the sun's rays on the pool floor.
The most distant object scientists have ever discovered is not this one. This is the most distant object where we can see light from a single star.
The star was distant, but not old, as he noted. It is a few million years old and never reached old age.
Earendel said that it almost certainly has not survived as more massive stars tend to burn through their fuel faster and explode or collapse into black holes sooner.
Earendel's mass, brightness, temperature and type are not known. It is possible that Earendel is outshining its partner because most stars of Earendel's mass have a smaller, dimmer companion.
Scientists plan to use NASA's recently launched James Webb Space Telescope to analyze Earendel's light and pin down its features. The first stars in the universe were formed before the universe was filled with heavy elements.
One of the most exciting things about this result is that it opens a new window into the early universe.
Earendel said that with this lensed star, we can study its light independently and look for differences which will improve our understanding of stars in the early universe.
The scientists detailed their findings in the journal.
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