WHL0137-LS
James Webb Space Telescope image of galaxy cluster WHL0137-08 and Earendel | |
| Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000 | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Right ascension | 01h 37m 23.232s |
| Declination | –08° 27′ 52.20″ |
| Astrometry | |
| Distance | Comoving distance: 28 billion ly |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | B |
| Apparent magnitude (F435W) | 27.2 |
| Variable type | Luminous blue variable star |
| Details | |
| if a single star | |
| Mass | 20–200 M☉ |
| Radius | 103–393 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 631,000–3,981,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | 13,000–16,000 K |
| if a binary (parameters highly uncertain) | |
| Radius | component 1: 23 R☉ component 2: 184 R☉ |
| Luminosity | component 1: 631,000 L☉ component 2: 200,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | component 1: 34,000 K component 2: 9,000 K |
| Other designations | |
| Earendel | |
WHL0137-LS, also known as Earendel, is a star located in the constellation of Cetus. Discovered in 2022 with the Hubble Space Telescope, it is the earliest and most distant known star, at a comoving distance of 28 billion light-years (8.6 billion parsecs). The previous farthest known star, MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1, also known as Icarus, at a comoving distance of 14.4 billion light-years (4.4 billion parsecs), was discovered by Hubble in 2018. Stars like Earendel can be observed at cosmological distances thanks to the large magnification factors afforded by gravitational lensing, which can exceed 1,000. Other stars have been observed through this technique, such as Godzilla.