{"id":6454,"date":"2025-09-06T18:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/6454\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T18:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:22:12","slug":"is-earendel-the-most-distant-star-or-a-star-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/6454\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Earendel the most distant star? Or a star cluster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earendel:In 2022, scientists said Earendel<\/a> was the most distant star in the universe we\u2019ve yet seen. But now a new study using the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> suggests Earendel isn\u2019t one star, but instead a whole cluster of stars. Image via NASA<\/a>\/ ESA\/ CSA\/ D. Coe (STScI\/ AURA for ESA; Johns Hopkins University)\/ B. Welch (NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center; University of Maryland, College Park). Image processing: Z. Levay.
\nEarendel: Star or star cluster?<\/p>\n

Earendel caused a stir back in 2022<\/a>, when it set the record for being the most distant star known. But this summer, a new study appeared, suggesting<\/a> that Earendel might not be a star at all. Published on July 31, 2025, the study indicates that Earendel is a cluster of stars.<\/p>\n

We first learned of Earendel when the Hubble telescope discovered the point of light in a lensed galaxy<\/a>, that is, the image of a distant galaxy that\u2019s been distorted, magnified, and sometimes multiplied by the gravity of a closer, massive galaxy or galaxy cluster. <\/p>\n

This process of gravitational lensing<\/a> lets us see objects in the distant universe. The distant galaxy containing Earendel is thought to have existed just 900 million years after the Big Bang<\/a>. It exists at a time called the Cosmic Dawn<\/a> by astronomers. So it\u2019s no surprise they call the distant galaxy the Sunrise Arc galaxy. We see its light spread out in an arc shape around the massive intervening galaxy.<\/p>\n

So is Earendel a star? Or is it a star cluster? The 2022 study (A Highly Magnified Star at Redshift 6.2<\/a>) suggests it\u2019s a star.<\/p>\n

The 2025 study (Is Earendel a Star Cluster?: Metal-poor Globular Cluster Progenitors at z ~ 6)<\/a> suggests it\u2019s a star cluster. <\/p>\n

Video: The story of Earendel as a star<\/p>\n

Earendel is positioned along a ripple in spacetime<\/a> that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, which appears as a red smear across the sky. In this video from 2022, Dr. Brian Welch talks about Earendel and explains how his team used the Hubble Space Telescope to conclude it\u2019s a single star.<\/p>\n

The new research suggests a star cluster instead<\/p>\n

The new research used a stellar population<\/a> model \u2013 a theoretical framework, created on a computer and used to understand the physical properties of a collection of stars \u2013 along with data from the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>. The scientists looked at both Earendel and a different light source in the Sunrise Arc galaxy. The second light source was already widely believed to be a star cluster. The astronomers found that Earendel and this other object (called \u201c1b\u201d) both fit the model for a cluster.<\/p>\n

The identification of an object so far away in the universe is no slam dunk. The light from Earendel has traveled billions of light-years<\/a> to reach us. Along the way, the light has been warped and magnified by the intervening galaxy cluster. But the new spectra of Earendel fit nicely with the spectra of the star cluster already known in the galaxy.<\/p>\n

The scientists think it\u2019s possible both Earendel and 1b are the precursors to what we know today as globular clusters<\/a>. We see globular clusters orbiting the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way<\/a>. They are tightly packed, symmetrical collections of stars that orbit galaxies.<\/p>\n

But the astronomers don\u2019t know for sure. And the question of whether Earendel is a star or a star cluster remains open. But, they said, there would be one smoking gun, one piece of evidence that would convince them Earendel is indeed a star. If it is, then scientists would expect the star to be emitting stellar winds. And if it did, that fact would be detected via the microlensing. So far, they\u2019ve yet to see this evidence. So the question remains: is Earendel a star or a star cluster?<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe spectra<\/a> of Earendel (top) compared to the spectra of the star cluster 1b in the Sunrise Arc galaxy. Scientists found similarities in the objects\u2019 metallicity<\/a>, stellar surface density and age. Image via AAS Nova<\/a>\/ Pascale et al. 2025.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: A new study using data from the James Webb Space Telescope shows that Earendel \u2013 thought to be the most distant star known \u2013 might be a cluster of stars.<\/p>\n

Source: Is Earendel a Star Cluster?: Metal-poor Globular Cluster Progenitors at z ~ 6<\/a><\/p>\n

Via AAS Nova<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt
\n View Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2022, scientists said Earendel was the most distant star in the universe we\u2019ve yet seen. But now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-6454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}