Abstract
Galaxy clusters magnify background objects through strong gravitational lensing. Typical magnifications for lensed galaxies are factors of a few but can also be as high as tens or hundreds, stretching galaxies into giant arcs1,2. Individual stars can attain even higher magnifications given fortuitous alignment with the lensing cluster. Recently, several individual stars at redshifts between approximately 1 and 1.5 have been discovered, magnified by factors of thousands, temporarily boosted by microlensing3–6. Here we report observations of a more distant and persistent magnified star at a redshift of 6.2 ± 0.1, 900 million years after the Big Bang. This star is magnified by a factor of thousands by the foreground galaxy cluster lens WHL0137–08 (redshift 0.566), as estimated by four independent lens models. Unlike previous lensed stars, the magnification and observed brightness (AB magnitude, 27.2) have remained roughly constant over 3.5 years of imaging and follow-up. The delensed absolute UV magnitude, −10 ± 2, is consistent with a star of mass greater than 50 times the mass of the Sun. Confirmation and spectral classification are forthcoming from approved observations with the James Webb Space Telescope.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 815-818 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 603 |
| Issue number | 7903 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 31 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The RELICS Hubble Treasury Program (GO 14096) and follow-up programme (GO 15842) consist of observations obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Data from these HST programmes were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Both HST and STScI are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. The HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was developed under NASA contract NAS 5-32864. J.M.D. acknowledges the support of project PGC2018-101814-B-100 (MCIU/AEI/MINECO/FEDER, UE) and María de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765. A.Z. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel. R.W. acknowledges support from NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G and 80NSSC18K0200 from GSFC. E.Z. and A.V. acknowledge funding from the Swedish National Space Board. M.O. acknowledges support from World Premier International Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan, and JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP20H00181, JP20H05856, JP18K03693. G.M. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. MARACAS – DLV-896778. P.K. acknowledges support from NSF AST-1908823. Y.J.-T. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 898633, and from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the ‘Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa’ award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). The Cosmic DAWN Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant no. 140.
Funding Information:
The RELICS Hubble Treasury Program (GO 14096) and follow-up programme (GO 15842) consist of observations obtained by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Data from these HST programmes were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Both HST and STScI are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. The HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was developed under NASA contract NAS 5-32864. J.M.D. acknowledges the support of project PGC2018-101814-B-100 (MCIU/AEI/MINECO/FEDER, UE) and María de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765. A.Z. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel. R.W. acknowledges support from NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G and 80NSSC18K0200 from GSFC. E.Z. and A.V. acknowledge funding from the Swedish National Space Board. M.O. acknowledges support from World Premier International Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan, and JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP20H00181, JP20H05856, JP18K03693. G.M. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. MARACAS – DLV-896778. P.K. acknowledges support from NSF AST-1908823. Y.J.-T. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 898633, and from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the ‘Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa’ award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). The Cosmic DAWN Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant no. 140.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.