Mothra is a system of two supergiant stars in one of the extremely magnified galaxies behind the lensing galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403.
“The discovery of ‘MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1,’ informally known as Icarus, represented the birth of a new branch of astronomy dedicated to the study of luminous stars at cosmological distances,” said Instituto de Física de Cantabria astronomer Jose Diego and his colleagues.
“This feat is only possible thanks to the boost provided by extreme magnification factors, with values over 1,000 at least for short periods of time.”
“In the case of Icarus, the object caught the attention of astronomers because it brightened by more than a magnitude in observations two years apart.”
“The search for lensed stars currently covers a wide range in redshift and includes objects that do not show variability,” they added.
“One example is Godzilla, which was identified thanks to its anomalous magnification.”
“Godzilla was identified as a monster star because of its extraordinary brightness. At z = 2.37 (10.9 billion light-years from Earth), it has apparent magnitude AB ≈ 22 in the visible bands and is within reach of modest ground-based telescopes.”
“Another example is Earendel at an estimated z = 6.2 (12.9 billion light-years from Earth) and currently holding the record for the most distant star ever observed.”
The newly-detected star is located in a galaxy with spectroscopic redshift z = 2.091 (10.5 billion light-years from Earth).
“We nicknamed the star system Mothra in a nod to its monster nature, being both extremely bright and extremely magnified,” the astronomers said.
“The more official name is EMO J041608.838-240358.60, where the acronym EMO refers to extremely magnified object.”
Mothra is magnified by a factor of at least 4,000 by both the foreground galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 and an additional object that likely weighs about as much as a globular…
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