The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the farthest star yet, 12.9 billion light-years from Earth, when the universe was a “baby”, launched today.

The star, named after Earndel, which means “morning star” in Old English, will be at least 50 times the mass of the Sun and will be millions of times brighter.

The previous record was for a star observed when the universe was about four billion years old (the estimated age of the universe is 13.8 billion years).

Earndel’s discovery was possible because its light is amplified and distorted by gravitational lenses, which are formed due to a distortion of spacetime due to the presence of a massive object, in this case a group of galaxies between a star and a star. telescope observation field.

According to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA), partner in the Hubble telescope, the Earndale formation “will be of great interest to astronomers”, as it “formed before the universe was filled with heavy elements produced by successive generations.” of the huge stars.

Astronomers hope to get more accurate data from Earndale using the new James Webb Space Telescope, in orbit since January, that will spot the first galaxies and stars in the universe.

The results of this discovery were published in the scientific journal Nature.