We still have a lot to discover and learn from the stars. Astronomers from all over the world search the night sky to unlock some of the secrets of our galaxy. While the rest of mortals tend to look at the sky in search of curious star names, many of them named after historical events, personalities, natural phenomena or Greek mythology, among other reasons.
This week it is news that the Hubble telescope has detected the oldest and most distant star ever observed: Eärendel. The star no longer exists, it exploded millions of years ago, but its light was so powerful that it is still visible.
Eärendel, named after a poem by Tolkien
An international team of astronomers led by Brian Welch from Johns Hopkins University (USA), with the participation of various researchers from the University of the Basque Country and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), have detected Eärendel, the most distant star ever observed. A discovery explained in the Nature magazine.
RECORD BROKEN: Hubble observed the farthest individual star ever seen!
This extraordinary new benchmark detected light from a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang.
Find out more: https://t.co/2ivkk1iqz3 pic.twitter.com/X7qcijwx24
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) March 30, 2022
Apart from what a discovery of these dimensions implies, this star receives its name from the poem “Eärendel’s Journey”, the evening star, written in 1914 by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings”.
Movie characters, poets and astronomers
The vast majority of stars have their origin in the region of Mesopotamia and also in the classical culture of Greece and Rome. However, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Arabs translated the Latin names into their language. Beyond the names of stars with mythological origin, these are some of the most curious star names.
Godzilla
In 2018, NASA decided to baptize a constellation under the name of Godzilla, resembling its new discovery to the classic Japanese character. The agency made this decision because Godzilla is “one of the most recognized symbols of Japanese culture” arguing that the “heat ray” bears resemblance to the movie monster. Precisely the discovery of Eärendel by the Hubble telescope has superseded Godzilla as an extremely bright star that until now was the most distant that had been seen, located 10,900 million light years.
godzilla star
Rosalia de Castro
It is a yellow dwarf star similar to our Sun and previously known as “HD 149143”. Her name has a very close relationship with the 20th century writer and author of “Cantares gallegos”, “Follas novas” or “On the shores of Sar”. The name that baptizes the star, Rosalía de Castro, was chosen by Spain in a popular vote organized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to baptize different stars of the solar system. This star is part of the Ophiuchus constellation, also known as the “snake hunter” located 240 light years from Earth.
Kepler
In October 1604, the appearance of a supernova 1604 (SN 1604), also known as Kepler’s star, was observed from Earth. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to observe it, and his study of it was so extensive that he later became known by name. No other supernovae that have occurred in our galaxy have been observed since then, although other supernovae outside the Milky Way have been observed.
