JWST Discovered The Farthest Star Ever Seen!
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- čas přidán 11. 10. 2023
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To understand where we came from-how earth, the solar system, the galaxy became what they are today-we need to understand the beginning of time. For example, how did the first galaxies pull themselves together from the dark universe-filling ocean of gas that followed the Big Bang? With the James Webb Space Telescope we’re starting to be able to find those first galaxies. It’s hard work because at those crazy distances all we see is tiny, faint and fuzzy blobs. If only we could see the individual stars in those galaxies we could learn so much more. Well, now using this one weird trick we can do exactly that. Or at least we have one lonely star at the end of the universe. But it won’t be lonely for long.
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![Everything NASA Discovered from James Webb's First Year in Space [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nbDQEo0uA0Q/mqdefault.jpg)
"Hold up, we need to talk about how nerdy I can go for a full minute here"
...."OK now back to the physics"
Absolutely love the name for this star! The star of Eärendil…
Tolkien lore master are here ! I thought the same thing right away, and we're not alone
I always thought tolkiens half-elves were maybe the most interesting thing in The Silmarillion. Like they were so rare and strange that even that even Eru (the one true god) was like "alright i dont really have a plan for how to handle you. You have to pick either being a human or an elf". I think Elrond was Earendils brother and chose elf?
@@zakkus Nope, you’re thinking of Elros. Eärendil was their father.
Does gravitational lensing affect the red shift?
@@luudest Probably negligible, or very small influence.
How incredible is it that light rays once from the same source but then lost from each other for billions of years at ludicrous distances finally end their journey back together again in such a tiny patch of space as a telescope receiver.
EDIT: _some_ light beams guys, didn't mean all
The wonders of the universe never get old
And they often arrive at different times because despite starting and ending at the same place, they cover different distances.
Line of sight straight lines
Hum... never thought of it that way. Pretty cool!
Poet
In case anyone is wondering, Earendel's proper distance is 28 billion light years away (the distance its location is now), the light we see from it is 12.5 billion years old, and it was 3.5 billion light years away when it existed and emitted the light we see now.
Thank you!
Space math hurts my brain.
The 28 billion light years (bly) is a very misleading piece of information. It is at this distance today but obviously we see it as it was less than 14 bly from our current position. By the way at the time, we were much, much closer together.
@@arctic_hazeyeah he just said that
@@iwantmykidssusan4941 Well, who listens to the videos? 😁
as an ent-level tolkienist, i am fervently hoping that it turns out that earendel is in fact revealed to be a binary star system, as discussed at 11:00, and the individual stars can be named laurelin and telperion. ❤
As amazing as that would be, unfortunately far as I know the naming conventions for stars and multi-star systems make it pretty unlikely (if not entirely impossible), at least as so far as the official names goes.
They would simply be "Earendel A" and "Earendel B."
@@scaper8 Maybe we can get an exception and name them Earendel L and Earendel T
I think Earendel and Elwing would be even better names.
I'd save Laurelin and Telperion for the first 1st generation stars we find, as they were the first coalesced lights of Arda.
(EDIT: isomeme is right that they're 2nd gen light sources)
@@abydosianchulac2 , Laurelin and Telperion were second-generation light sources. The great lamps Illuin and Ormal preceded them.
Hearing Matt talk about LOTR characters and quickly shift to astrophysics and cosmology is next level nerd and I couldn't be happier 🧙♂️✨🌌
Haha I came to make this same comment
I have worked for NASA for over 40 years as an engineer. A very high percentage of the engineers and techs I have worked with are serious nerds. When we're discussing serious work stuff, references to Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, D&D, and Holy Grail are often mentioned.
I'm 70+ and some interns will start chanting "Bring out yer dead." when I come into their area. Of course I'll respond with "I'm not dead," and the response is, of course, "Well, you will be soon."😂😂😂
Astrophysics, space telescopes, Tolkien (with the fun linguistic elements no less!) AND Norse mythology? They'd be hard-pressed to make this video _more_ perfect for me.
@@Urronerthis is so heart warming! Much love
This is one case where we can say with certainty that the star we are seeing no longer exists. It exploded a long time ago but the light from the explosion hasn't reached us yet.
If absolute time existed, you'd be right.
@@dlevi67 lul wut (we dont need "absolute time" to know that star is now dead, or in one of those states they end up after they have lived their prime life, or whatever you want to call it - like a white dwarf or whatever.)
Great comment from a great channel. Also I'd argue the exploded star might have formed a new one (or new stars) since, and probably a few generations at that
At that redshift, I don't think the future states of that region of space will ever reach us.
@@xBINARYGODx "Now" is relative. There is no preferred reference frame, including time. This star is very much alive in Earth's "now".
As a Tolkien fan, I love this name! Earendil with a Silmaril in the night sky... The very star Frodo was watching from the mountains of Mordor.
Correction, but it was Sam who saw the Silmaril, no?
@@throwaway9208 yes, but maybe Frodo was watching too, they had a lot of time there:)
Is no one going to talk about the pronunciation tho? Ee-uh-ren-del? I get it's kind of spelt that way, but really now....
"We no longer need to invent our own origin story. We can know it." Powerful stuff Matt.
I was just about to quote the same prophecy!!❤🎉😊
I love that part too
fun fact: 99% of the population believes in s**tty origin stories and thats not going to change anytime soon. Science needs to make itself more heard. Sadly this still doesnt happen. Maybe the new generations in the West are better equipped to listen to this. But most of the world lives still in the middle ages. Also the West is on the brink or going back there by the way.
Why can I hear religions screaming right now?!
Matt has been replaced by AI!!!
I don't think Galadriel would be happy if she found out that JWST captured the light of Eärendil.
Just wait until she hears about all those Einstein rings...
JWST is more magical and crafted more cunningly than her mirror, so that's fine
Looking through the stem of a wine glass to simulate gravitational lensing is peak physics professor. Whoever first figured that out deserves credit
Hmmm, no.
That isn't simulating gravitational lensing.... and the lensing from the Sun only occurs, as predicted from GR, at the limb of the Sun, which means it is due to the magnetic effect. They don't tell you that the shift further away from the Sun does not fall in line with predictions made by GR.
@@pyropulseIXXIwhen will you submit your paper and claim your Nobel prize?
Eärendil's star was also of particular importance to the Elves by the time of the Third Age, and it became their "most beloved" star. Galadriel set its light in her mirror, capturing some in the phial she gave to Frodo Baggins. When Frodo used the phial against Shelob, he unconsciously cried out an appeal to the Star of Eärendil; its light was effective in repelling the spider, though it would have been more powerful if used continuously. Sam later tried to use the phial in the Crack of Doom, but Sauron's power there dimmed even the light of Eärendil.
Exactly. All fiction like modern astrology.
@@johnkean6852 "modern" astrology? you mean all astrology, the whole thing is frivolous, always was.
LOVE the nerdy references to Tolkien and other languages. Agree, it is awesome! It is rare I understand the entire episode...this was a delight.
Brainwashing a success! A whole case of snakeoil on its way.
it's amazing that hubble is still so useful in finding new things and even that it's still operational
And yet there is no photo of our beloved Earth.
@@johnkean6852that's not true. Are you a flat earther?
@@GameTimeWhy He's been spamming this entire comments section with "all science is fiction" bullsh*t. Just ignore the ignoramus.
I love the star's name. Beautiful.
Always admired beauty of Tolkien's characters names.
Even if we find abundance of large stars like that it may be due to survivorship bias rather than large stars being more present in the past. Large, brighter stars have higher chance of being spotted.
I'd imagine that's also a problem we have to deal with in the modern universe tho. Red dwarfs are a lot dimmer, and I'd imagine our telescopes can't make them out more than several thousand light years away
(At least we have a good patch of the universe where we're confident we can see all the stars to reference the population of. That probably helps)
On the other hand, they live far shorter lives; the total time they shine will be much less, which is its own bias.
lol physicist know about survivorship. Its modeled
Low mass stars live a lot longer.
It's quite possible that there is a large number of just as old red dwarf stars pretty close to us. Even at the age of the universe, they would still just now have reached 1% of their total lifetime.
Somewhere deep in the dark distant past, a voice carried on stellar winds is *still* traveling billions of light years towards us to announce: "FIRST!" 😂
Thank you for all the awesome content and great videos!!!!
Space is so amazing
I am in love with the animations in this episode. Just feels like the perfect balance of sci-fi flair and serious-science-seriousness.
Matt talking Tolkien is just too much to handle
I be watching a video doc. on stars and I finally get what I needed. Thanks Matt!!! So many cool facts I’ve learned. Earendel. Gotta love Tolkien.
They're not FACTS don't be deluded.
I love this channel. Watching these videos about new discoveries knowing that more discoveries are constantly being made is exciting and entertaining in a way that's lacking comparison
For: "new discoveries" read: "some _way out man_ theories developed reading _The Hobbit_ and _Harry Potter_ ."
1:00 V762 Cassiopeiae is only about 2,500 light-years away, according to data from Gaia. You'll find websites online that claim that it is the most distant visible star, but those are all outdated (by about a decade).
This is super cool! Thanks for keeping us updated! And a million thanks for writing the closed captions yourself instead of autogenerating them. I know that would have a million mistakes
True, but the resulting hysterical laughter would be fun too. What would autogen make of "Earendel?" Year-end ell? Year handle? We'll never know.
This dude has the most chill voice ever.
You both put me to sleep because it's so chill and I can't help but get captivated by the topic.
It helps that I love space lol
It's the accent, partially
And space loves you. Jk. Everything in the interstellar medium wants you dead. Yay for toxic love I guess? 😅
once I saw George Clooney from far away. Furthest star I've seen
Bat nipples!
I saw what you did there.
Hmmmm I was close to Mark Hamill. Couldn’t interact with him 🥺🥺
Once I saw the guy who played Cliff Claven on Cheers
@@MattHudsonAtx "the guy who" is the name of no star at all. ;-)
It is under-appreciated to the extent that JWST has been cracking open our universe and refining our theories at a record pace. What a marvelous creation and achievement for humanity.
Don't forget Hubble! Earendil was discovered with Hubble, and to my eyes, the increased sensitivity of the newer telescope did little to enhance it. (I am aware the spectroscopy of JWST will likely reveal things beyond the capabilities of Hubble)
Old English and Old Norse didn't just exchange words in the middle ages. They share a common root from long before both. They're in a wider Germanic language group with many words originating in their prehistory. Only later branching off into Norse, English, German, etc. Many of their words, especially regarding these old languages, sound similar due to shared linguistic roots even before their time.
A bit similar to how British English and American English share many words, but pronunciation, usage, and a few words regarding newer (mostly technological) words are a bit different after 250 years of separation. Like that, but it had been a much longer span of time between those old languages.
Just a heads-up. 😉
True, old English is closer to old noise than today's English to old English. Modern English is an amalgam of old English and old French (since old French was a language of english ruling class since 1066 and they despised English as a language of peasants).
@@oskarskalski2982”old noise” = Old Norse? Auto-correct up to its tricks again 😊. Tolkien was well-versed in these old languages; one reason his books are so very rich and rewarding to read.
@@lindaj5492 yeah, it was meant to be "Old Norse", auto correct is a b.....
Thank you for your very clear and comprehensive explanation of lensing and early star formation.
All I can say is, this channel is amazing and Matt is amazing narrator. I've been watching this for years and it's still today the number one source of space news I come to watch now and in the future!
Thank you. I was looking for something worth watching.
It’s crazy to think that when that light was emitted its destination did not exist for billions of years(earth). It is both incredibly cool and frustrating; I mean we can literally look back in time but not at the present. What is out there now?
On the flip side, there's no way a star that massive will last long. So when the light ultimately reached its destination, the star it came from no longer existed.
What is more crazy is that photons do not experience time. From the photon's perspective, the instant it began its journey it arrived here. It left from a star that no longer exists to arrive at a point that did not yet exist in the exact same instant.
@@AshleyReynolds-vc6ly Trippy
All of this from just looking up at the sky. It's truly amazing.
No. You have to have read Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Stephen Hawkings books, ALL FICTION. But required reading.
Well, and a lot of careful observation, modeling and collaboration.
Truly inspiring. and amazing how we can gleam so much from as spot of light at the edge of observable.... spacetime.
I love this channel because it has given me a basic knowledge of these huge concepts in astrophysics and theoretical physics to help me enjoy fun science fiction like the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" which I just finished. wouldn't have been as enjoyable if i didn't understand some of the deep concepts in the book beforehand
Wherein: "the smell of space helps you remember the big bang fom your subconscious memories embedded in your DNA like animal instinct."
Hmm, no.
As usual, very informative video Matt! I just can't wrap my mind around "29 Billion Light Years"! 🤔🤔💥💥
For 29 billion read; 1 trillion, 250 million, even _infinity_ ... you're guess is as good as his, might be more accurate! You'll never know.
Thank you for the awesome content!
That lonely star at the end of the universe: would that be next to the restaurant at the end of the universe? I'm planning to go there soon and need to map out my route.
You matched my first thought when he mentioned “… at the end of the universe” - I wonder if he chose that phrase deliberately as a teaser?
What a marvel and engineering phenomenon the JWST is.
It’s a shame social media has provided a voice for some that can’t grasp the incredible science being performed.
...prosletysed.
Performed LOL.
@@johnkean6852 Case in point.
@@johnkean6852 What?
I hope you cover more of this story as it develops and maybe even explain how they figure out the lensing more accurately. Very cool video thank you!
All the people in the commentary were satisfied - YOU have to blow it by asking him to explain all his fantasies again. Doh!
@@johnkean6852what? You don't believe this story?
I'm so glad you went over the lore behind the name!
4:17 thankyou! i was thinking the same thing as soon as i saw the name!
So Valinor is 28 billion LY away from us. GOT IT.
Now I can rest easy.
Whatever gave you the impression that Eärendil was in Valinor? The entire point of the sky boat is that he's *not allowed* back into Valinor.
I love this channel so much. What a time to be alive.
Keep taking the feelgood pills, they're the green ones.
I love you adorable muf.
Nice little Geekout on the Tolkien Background there 😆
A time capsule in the sky! How cool... And I imagine that whatever is left in the area of that long-gone star has a lens looking back at our early galaxy. I assume it's a two-way lens. What a very clever find and glad it's being put to good use.
Just WOW. I remember when Hubble and the Webb telescopes were in their planning stages. Reading national geographic about how they'd be able to peer into the beginnings of the universe. And here we are. Just WOW.
That is actually very cool
Do observations like this also provide information to get a better handle on some of the properties of the intervening objects that are creating the lensing?
Yes, the curves and multiple images give us information about the cluster's gravitational field. Such information was valuable in, for example, the Bullet Cluster, where the gravity and visible mass didn't exactly align.
I like how you explains things and break things down
awesome as always
Can we have an episode on how time slowed back in the early universe ? Relative to now, due to the difference in mass density? Hawking talked about this in his Universe in a Nutshell book, but no one else seems to have discussed it. Bonus, it means a lot for kurzgesagt’s latest video on possible life in the early universe. 🙏
Time only exists in YOUR HEAD it's virtual it doesn't exist.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity showed that space & time are a single construct, i.e. spacetime. Mass curves spacetime. We experience this curvature as gravity and time dilation.
Hey, this is my first time commenting, and it actually has nothing to do with this episode. I've spent the past month getting caught up on the last four years I missed, and I have a question about the fundamental forces.
What would happen if all the forces were exactly equal in strength? I'm guessing it would literally be nothing since there would be no imbalance to propel the various interactions that create our reality, but I would really like to hear your thoughts on the subject. Thank you for your consideration.
@@mal2ksc Yeah, if Einstein is correct about gravity being the warping of space-time(which it seems to be pretty conclusive given all the predictions that have been verified time, and time again) it is unique, and different from the other forces. It may not be conducive to unification, but time will tell... Or it won't, in which case it could probably just use its space.
If all the fundamental forces we have today were the same strength, we'd be in trouble. The way forces balance is different for each. Using the strong nuclear force as a benchmark, electromagnetism would need to be ramped up a few times, shrinking the sizes of atoms and making many nuclei unstable. (Helium for example, which relies on the strong force overpowering electromagnetism.) This would vastly alter the fusion processes in stars and the elements produced, as well as a lot of chemistry.
Which would be quite different too, if we include gravity (putting aside its origin) its strength would increase many orders of magnitude, and it doesn't cancel or balance. Lumps of mass the weight of a human would tend to collapse into black holes. Very little matter would be able to gather in one place. Against that, the mess of the weak force's strength change would be a minor inconvenience.
thanks for the information and episode
It was awesome hearing you on this weeks star talk with Neil
We have to be careful about detection bias here. If we can only see the largest stars at that time, we may start to believe there were more high mass stars than there really were. Just like how when we started to detect exoplanets, all we were finding were hot Jupiters.
I think a lot of smart people have taken this into account
Not to mention the sample size of 1
@@robertastorga Exactly. Until we can find more we have no idea at all how it really was. Until Webb's successor arrives there's no degree of certtainty as to the mass distribution of early stars.
We are fortunate enough to have the galaxy's light here as well, a mixture of ALL stars in it. This can tell us the average brightness of the stars, as well as their temperature which lets us put some constraints on the stellar mass distribution of the galaxy.
@@bazpearce9993 No certainty of ANYTHING in modern cosmology LOL.
Too much guesswork and CGI.
The microphone sounds a bit weird this episode. Like it's been "enhanced" by an AI but it makes it less normal sounding.
Edit: Oh wait maybe you have been sick!
This video has achieved the Chandrasekhar limit of my fandoms.. and I, Durin Whitestar, have collapsed in pure delight!
Amazing episode!
Wow, such a great and clear narrated episode. Good to follow for every layman. Feels like i'm watching an early episode of space time again. Awesome job, very interesting, excited for follow-ups on this topic in the future
I think that “One Lonely Star at the End of the Universe” should be the title of a dystopian, apocalyptic sci-fi film starring Adam Driver and Rosario Dawson. 🙏
I don't think you have to explain Tolkein to this channel's audience.
Earendel is also the name of one of the developers of Factorio who makes the Space Exploration mod on the side.
3:39 We fellow Tolkien and Destiny2 nerds salute you, Matt!
Want to see far away stars? Use this One Weird Trick!
Lol
First
Nice
Brilliant stuff!
Absolutely fascinating...
Does anyone else agree that we’d enjoy a separate Spacetime episode on gravitational lensing? The fundamentals of gravitational lensing seem relatively straightforward but I’d really like to see more examples, along with the mass of the galaxy clusters that are bending all this ancient light.
JWST seems uniquely capable of leveraging GL to see distant objects that were beyond the grasp of Hubble’s visible light configuration. I expect we’ll see quite a few images from JWST, and I’d like to understand GL by sending the practical results from GL.
Top notch as always. Never stop!
He's been presenting the channel for 8 years now
@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 Yes, and never stop means continuing forever into the future.
Great explanations and illustrations.
A lot of shows would point out the origin of the name of the star in question. Come to PBS Space Time for the further explanation of the Tolkien reference soundalike.
Love the show ❤❤
What a beautiful episode
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this episode so much.
Incredible tool and coincidence. Awesome
It is not clear in the video, but the Tolkien character is actually the original inspiration for the stars name.
The old English morning star helped justify the name. Although a Tolkien reference is justification enough for me.
The beginning of this video feels like I accidentally skipped ahead a few seconds
❤Thank you very much another beautiful lesson
As a Tolkien fan, I am more happy than fascinated
I am looking so forward to see the spectral analysis of this star
I wish PBS Infinite Series were still around to explain the process of deconvolving a strongly lensed image and reconstructing the background image from that deconvolution.
Great video!
Thank you
Mind blowing stuff!
Fixed my morning cup of coffee and sat down to watch this. Whoa! The caffeine level in my brain had not sufficiently accumulated for all that. Paused to smoke a doob and now it all makes perfect sense.
Just to be even more nerdy To,keen first wrote about Earendil in a poem at school, almost his first effort. Amazing to be able to see something so early in our universe. Thanks Doctor O’Dowd.
Yes, like all modern science, fictional - more philosophy than science.
Love these videos!
I watch these videos and don’t completely understand them but I’m glad that someone does.
awwww he sounds sick!
It made me so happy to hear the very thorough and satisfying Silmarillion reference. It was on my mind the second I heard the real name
Fascinating.
„At the end of the universe“ is the beginning of the universe.
I LOVE PBS!
Hi Matt!!! Are you guys planning on doing a video on the nobel prize, and Attoseconds? As a musician I found it super exciting, but maybe a video on what potential discoveries we might get long term! Anyways, love this channel, still wear a t-shirt from you guys at Space Time when I need to draw power from the power of inspired goods! 😂
Sick rap Matt @12:07
Another great video. I'm still holding out hope that someday the sound on these uploads will be fixed.
* cleans his glasses *
Nope... still can't see it.
Couldn’t have been too many stars kickin’ around back then. This guy probably has to be one of the earliest stars from one of, if not _the_ earliest generation of stars to ever exist. So cool
Another beautiful video. Great presentation. Wonder if we had built a space telescope with mirror 30x the size of JWST, what all we could have discovered. Probably would have rewritten lot of things in those thick books!!