Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 55 minutes ago
Take a look at the most distant star we have ever seen. This tiny red dot in the Sunrise Arc Galaxy is actually a single star- Earendel- and it is 12.9 billion light-years away. Today, we'll explore how astronomers first detected this ancient star, first with the Hubble Space Telescope and then with the James Webb Space Telescope, and the miracle that makes it visible to us despite its mind-blowing distance. We've layered these beautiful photos into a mind blowing animation at the end, just to show the scale of this distance!
Earendel is located in the Cetus constellation.
Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien will certainly recognize the name. This star was nicknamed Earendel by the discoverers in honor of the character from Tolkien's legendarium. Eärendil is the name of a half-elven character mentioned in several of J. R. R. Tolkien's books (The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, primarily) who travelled through the sky with a radiant jewel that appeared as bright as a star. NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller confirmed that the reference to Tolkien was intentional. Pretty cool! Tolkien derived this name from an Old English poem in which it meant 'morning star' or 'rising light'.
Take a look at the most distant star we have ever seen. This tiny red dot in the Sunrise Arc Galaxy is actually a single star- Earendel- and it is 12.9 billion light-years away. Today, we'll explore how astronomers first detected this ancient star, first with the Hubble Space Telescope and then with the James Webb Space Telescope, and the miracle that makes it visible to us despite its mind-blowing distance. We've layered these beautiful photos into a mind blowing animation at the end, just to show the scale of this distance!
Earendel is located in the Cetus constellation.
Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien will certainly recognize the name. This star was nicknamed Earendel by the discoverers in honor of the character from Tolkien's legendarium. Eärendil is the name of a half-elven character mentioned in several of J. R. R. Tolkien's books (The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, primarily) who travelled through the sky with a radiant jewel that appeared as bright as a star. NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller confirmed that the reference to Tolkien was intentional. Pretty cool! Tolkien derived this name from an Old English poem in which it meant 'morning star' or 'rising light'.
