NASA breaks record after Hubble discovers farthest individual star ever- Watch

The newly detected farthest star has been nicknamed 'Earendel' which means 'morning star' in old English and it exists at 12.9 billion light-years away from us which means it took 12.9 billion years for the star's light to reach us. However, according to NASA, 'Earendel likely died long ago.'

Image credit: NASA

New Delhi: The American space agency, NASA (National Aeronautic Space Agency) with the help of its Hubble telescope has detected the farthest individual star till date, breaking its own previous record. The discovery of this star which has been nicknamed 'Earendel' sets a new benchmark for NASA as the star was formed in the first billion years after the Universe was formed.

The newly detected farthest star has been nicknamed 'Earendel' which means 'morning star' in old English and it exists at 12.9 billion light-years away from us which means it took 12.9 billion years for the star's light to reach us.

Earendel has replaced the previous record holder 'Icarus' which is situated 9 billion years away from the earth. According to NASA, Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times as bright, rivaling the most massive stars known.

"Earendel existed so long ago that it may not have had all the same raw materials as the stars around us today," stated  NASA quoting astronomer Brian Welch. Astronomer Welch describes the discovery of the farthest star as 'reading a really interesting book but starting it with the second chapter.'

"Studying Earendel will be a window into an era of the universe that we are unfamiliar with, but that led to everything we do know. It’s like we’ve been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the second chapter, and now we will have a chance to see how it all got started,” Welch told NASA.

RECORD BROKEN: Hubble observed the farthest individual star ever seen!

This extraordinary new benchmark detected light from a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe's birth in the big bang.

Find out more: https://t.co/2ivkk1iqz3 pic.twitter.com/X7qcijwx24 — Hubble (@NASAHubble) March 30, 2022

However, Earendel is not the oldest star. The oldest known star is 'Methuselah' which was detected by Hubble in 2013 and it still exists, while Earendel likely died long ago.