Hubble image archive
Lensed Star Earendel
The Sunrise Arc Galaxy With Lensed Star Earendel The star nicknamed Earendel (indicated with arrow) is positioned along a ripple in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, which appears as a red smear across the sky. Th...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2022
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2022-003-01fwrztqfdggp05km1prccnz1e
The Sunrise Arc Galaxy With Lensed Star Earendel
The star nicknamed Earendel (indicated with arrow) is positioned along a ripple in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, which appears as a red smear across the sky. The whole scene is viewed through the distorted lens created by a massive galaxy cluster in the intervening space, which allows the galaxy's features to be seen, but also warps their appearance—an effect astronomers call gravitational lensing. The red dots on either side of Earendel are one star cluster that is mirrored on either side of the ripple, a result of the gravitational lensing distortion. The entire galaxy, called the Sunrise Arc, appears three times, and knots along its length are more mirrored star clusters. Earendel's unique position right along the line of most extreme magnification allows it to be detected, even though it is not a cluster.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU), Dan Coe (STScI)
Image Processing
NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | WHL-J24.3324-8.477, Earendel |
| Object Description | Distant star |
| R.A. Position | 01:37:23.23 |
| Dec. Position | -08:27:52.20 |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Distance | The star is approximately 12.9 billion light-years away. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This Hubble image was created from HST data from proposals: 14096 () and 15842 (). |
| Instrument | ACS/WFC, WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | 7 June 2016, 17July 2016, 4 November 2019, and 27 November 2019 |
| Filters | F814W, F105W, F110W, F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC and the WFC3/IR instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow and wide wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F814W Green: F105W Red: F110W + F160W |
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov