(NASA/ESA/Space Telescope Science Institute)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has obtained a new image of a candidate for the most distant isolated star to date: Earendel.
Earendel ("morning star") is located in a galaxy whose light is gravitationally lensed by a cluster of galaxies and existed at a time when the universe was only 900 million years old.
The discovery of Earendel (WHL0137-LS) was announced in March this year, and it was made during the analysis of data from the RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey) galaxy clusters conducted by the Hubble telescope.
The candidate of a star is located in the WHL0137-zD1 galaxy, behind the WHL0137-08 cluster, which acts as a gravitational lens.
This allows us to see a distorted image of the galaxy, as well as a 9 thousand times magnified image of the star.
Astronomers assume that Earendel can be:
- a massive O-type star, with a mass of more than 100 solar masses, or
- an evolved O-, B-, or
- a A-type star, with more than 40 solar masses.
The Webb observed Earendel on July 30 under the JWST Proposal 2282 program.
This program studies images of gravitationally lensed stars, using the NIRCam and NIRSpec instruments in the near infrared range.
It is expected that the analysis of the collected data will make it possible to confirm the discovery (so far, the star is in candidate status).
Researchers hope they can also accurately determine its spectral type, luminosity, temperature, and position on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
In addition to the star, the JWST also observed the lensed host galaxy of the star, as well as star clusters in it.
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