Far out, man

THE OTHER DAY the space nerds (our hands are raised) were feeling all warm and fuzzy after the James Webb Space Telescope came fully online. The stories in the press read like science fiction: Its mirrored reflector was too big to ship. So it had to be pieced together by computer after being sent into orbit. And folks down here had to delicately position all the pieces via computer to get the space jigsaw big enough to see deep into space.

Fascinating. But there’s another telescope up there, and it’s still working.

This week, astronomers told the world that they’ve seen the most distant star ever seen by man. The light comes from the dawn of time. It’s blue! Like an Easter egg. And was captured by the still-working Hubble Space Telescope.

The star (if it’s still a star and hasn’t imploded yet) could be 100 times more massive than the sun. And a million times brighter.

Those who did the math think the light is 12.9 billion years old, probably emitted about 900 million years after the big bang. According to The Washington Post, the folks running Webb want to get a peek as soon as their machine is ready:

“What [the star] definitely is, is a target for the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble’s successor. The Webb is parked in a solar orbit that keeps it roughly 1 million miles from Earth, and it is in the midst of a calibration and commissioning phase, with the first scientific observations still a few months away.”

Webb will one day be first string, doubtless.

But until then, Hubble still has a few things to show the youngster.