Hubble space telescope captures most distant star ever seen

The most distant star ever seen has been captured by the Hubble space telescope and appears to give a glimpse into the ancient universe.

Earendel is the most distant star to date, with its light travelling an estimated 12 billion years to reach the Earth. Earendel may be the only individual star from this era that we will ever see, thanks to a rare alignment.

It was so far away from the previous most distant star that we almost didn't believe it at first.

Prof Colin Norman, who was not involved in the findings, said: "This is a remarkable discovery that opens up a completely new region of discovery and enables massive stars to be directly observed when the universe was young and star formation was."

Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of the Sun and millions of times as bright, placing it among the most massive stars known. A brilliant star would not normally be detected. An entire galaxy is just a smudge of light.

Astronomers were able to make the detection because of natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, which sits between us and Earendel. Light bends around the cluster to create a powerful magnifying glass that can see distant objects.

Earendel might be the earliest star we will ever see since the Big.

The star's distance was estimated by its color. Earendel is a deep red in the Hubble because it is red-shifted away from its original wavelength as it travels through the expanding universe.

The first cycle of observations using the James Webb Space Telescope will be prioritised based on the significance of the observations. This will allow scientists to confirm that they are looking at a distant star. An alternative possibility is that it is a brown dwarf.

Astronomers will be able to measure the star's brightness, temperature and composition with the planned observations. The ancestors of those we see in the sky today were formed before the Universe was filled with heavy elements. There are no direct evidence of an early generation of stars made of primordial hydrogen and helium.

The first supernovae that enrich the galaxies with metals and elements such as carbon and oxygen are produced by these stars.

The findings are published in a journal.