James Webb Space Telescope Catches the Most Distant Star in the Universe in Latest Image

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or simply Webb) has proven its capabilities and worth yet again with another astronomical feat.

The space agency's latest high-end space telescope has caught a glimpse of the most distant star in the universe, further proving that Hubble's successor has got what it takes to be NASA's new. no. 1 space telescope, per Space.com.

Earendel, named after the character Earendil the Mariner from J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel novel to "The Lord of the Rings," "The Silmarillion," was previously found using the Hubble Space Telescope in late March.

How Webb Found Earendel

NASA astronomers that are also handling the Cosmic Spring JWST Twitter page have recently uploaded a picture of Earendel taken by Webb. The star was said to have been lensed and magnified by a massive galaxy cluster which provided a celestial background and contrast to the furthest star in the universe.

"We're excited to share the first JWST image of Earendeil, the most distant star known in our universe, lensed and magnified by a massive galaxy cluster," the Cosmic Spring astronomers said on its Twitter page featuring Webb's picture of Earendel.

The lensing referred to in the tweet is called "gravitational lensing," which is the effect extremely massive celestial bodies, like galaxy clusters or supermassive blackholes, have on the light from objects behind them. When light passes a massive celestial body, it behaves like it is passing through the lens of a telescope, bending and magnifying the light from the object despite some distortions.

A follow-up tweet revealed that NASA has also taken Earendel's picture using Hubble, which produced a slightly different image from Webb. They also provided a GIF featuring the difference between Hubble's and Webb's photo of Earendel.

Thanks to the gravitational bending affecting Earendel, Webb, and Hubble were able to see it despite its distance from Earth.

For those unaware, Earendel is 12.9 billion light years away from Earth, a distance so far that its light is so faint that experts might have found the task of looking for the star as more than a challenge, even with Webb's capabilities.

To better find Earendel, astronomers used Hubble's picture of the star as some sort of guidance on where to look through Webb's zoomed-in cut-out.

Dan Coe at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, who was part of the team that made the new measurements to find Earendel, said that finding the star was "a really lucky alignment," and that nobody saw the star as magnified as Webb does, per News Scientist.

Webb's Capabilities

Webb is an infrared telescope made to detect light in the infrared to observe the first galaxies and protostars that radiate at those wavelengths, per Vox.

Thanks to its infrared capabilities, astronomers will be able to extend their look farther into space, find the first stars and galaxies, and even go back in time.

Webb can detect light from around 250 million years after the Big Bang, creating a 150 million year difference between Webb's capabilities and Hubble's, as the latter telescope can only detect light dating to about 400 million years after the Big Bang.

Based on astronomers' observations, we are looking at Erarendel as it was about 900 million years after the Big Bang.

With the discovery of Earendel using Webb, astronomers now have a benchmark as to how far Webb can see into space