Observers are seeing the star as it looked when the universe was about 30% of its current age.ĭiscovery of the star began in 2014 when astronomers were using Hubble to study a galaxy cluster. The Icarus visible to us now is a very young star, Kelly said. ![]() Kelly said its nickname stuck because the star will appear to grow brighter and then eventually disappear like Icarus’ waxed and feathered wings, which fell off when he got too close to the sun. “You can see individual galaxies out there, but this star is at least 100 times farther away than the next individual star we can study, except for supernova explosions.”Īccording to a report published by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the Hubble, the star is so far away its light has taken 9 billion years to reach Earth. “This is the first time we’re seeing a magnified, individual star,” Kelly said in a statement. The inset panels at right show the view in 2011, before Icarus was visible, compared with the star's brightening in 2016.
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