NASA's James Webb revealed the farthest star ever detected — and hints of a hidden companion

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope followed up on Hubble's discovery of Earendel, the farthest individual star ever detected, dating to within the first billion years after the Big Bang. Released August 9, 2023, Webb's observations revealed the star to be more than twice as hot as our Sun and about a million times more luminous — visible only because a massive galaxy cluster between Earth and the star bends space itself, magnifying it by a factor of at least 4,000. Astronomers also found hints of a cooler companion star, detectable only through the specific colors of light Webb could see. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA; Science: D. Coe (STScI/AURA for ESA; JHU), B. Welch (NASA-GSFC; UMD); Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), Z. Levay; Acknowledgment: NSF's NOIRLab, DSS, Akira Fujii