The Hubble Space Telescope’s groundbreaking discovery of Earendel in March 2022 has been turned on its head by new research that suggests the apparent star may not be a single star at all, but rather a deceptive star cluster. A team of astronomers reexamined the object using data from the Webb telescope and found that its features match those of globular clusters.
Earendel is located in the Sunrise Arc galaxy and was initially thought to be a massive B-type star, but follow-up observations revealed hints of a cooler, redder companion star next to Earendel. The team compared Earendel to another known star cluster in the same galaxy and found similar features, including age and metal content.
The researchers believe that gravitational lensing may have caused the distortion of Earendel’s appearance, stretching and magnifying it by a factor of at least 4,000. To confirm its true identity, the team plans to carry out follow-up observations to monitor how the object flickers and whether there are fluctuations in its light source.
This new study has significant implications for our understanding of distant galaxies and stars, and raises questions about what we thought we knew about Earendel’s record-breaking status.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/the-farthest-star-ever-seen-might-just-be-a-cosmic-illusion-2000644827