Hubble has discovered the most distant star: it is 23 billion light years from Earth

The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered the most distant star ever observed. She

is located at a distance of 28 billionlight years from Earth. The star is very ancient and appeared at the dawn of the development of the Universe. According to scientists, it appeared 900 million years after the Big Bang.

Scientists suggest that Earendel may be a single star or a binary star system. It is also 50 times more massive than the Sun and millions of times brighter.

Eärendel (indicated by an arrow). Photo: SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU), Dan Coe (STScI)
IMAGE PROCESSING: NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The most distant star was found by chance against the backgroundclusters of galaxies. Their gravity curved space and this created an effect known as gravitational lensing, which magnified the star's light tens of thousands of times. This is how it became visible to Hubble's instruments.

According to the study, the star's official name is WHL0137-LS, but astronomers named it Eärendel, from an Old English word that translates to "morning star." 

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