Earendel (Astronomical Object)

# Summary Earendel, discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2022 and located 28 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus, is the most distant known star or star cluster ever observed. The object's extreme distance makes it visible only through gravitational lensing caused by the galaxy cluster WHL0137-08, which magnifies its light by thousands to tens of thousands of times. Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest Earendel is likely a star cluster rather than a single star, surpassing the previous distance record held by the star Icarus discovered in 2018.