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Sunrise Arc (NIRCam Image)

A black background is scattered with hundreds of small galaxies of different shapes, ranging in color from white to yellow to red. Some galaxies, mostly the redder galaxies, are distorted, appearing to be stretched out or mirror imaged. Just a little bit above the center, there is a bright source of light, a star, with 8 bright diffraction spikes extending out from it. Below the star are several noticeably fuzzy white galaxies that resemble cotton balls – these are part of a galaxy cluster. To the lower right of the star is a particularly long, red, thin line stretching from one o’clock to 7 o’clock. This is the Sunrise Arc.

This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08 contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected.

The star, nicknamed Earendel, was first discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. Follow-up observations using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) reveals the star to be a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous.

Earendel is positioned along a wrinkle in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, which appears as a red smear across the sky. The star is detectable only due to the combined power of human technology and nature via an effect called gravitational lensing.

In this image, the Sunrise Arc appears just below the diffraction spike at the 5 o’clock position. The fuzzier, white galaxies at the center of the image are part of the galaxy cluster bound together by gravity. The various redder, curved galaxies are background galaxies picked up by Webb’s sensitive mirror.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    01:37:23.23
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -08:27:52.20
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Cetus
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    The star is approximately 12.9 billion light-years away.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 2282 (D. Coe)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    30 July 2022, 01 Jan 2023
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F410M, F444W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    WHL-J24.3324-8.477, Earendel
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Galaxy cluster with gravitational lensing and distant star
  • Release Date
    August 9, 2023
  • Science Release
    Webb Reveals Colors of Earendel, Most Distant Star Ever Detected
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA; Science: Dan Coe (STScI/AURA for ESA, JHU), Brian Welch (NASA-GSFC, UMD); Image Processing: Zoltan Levay

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A black background is scattered with hundreds of small galaxies of different shapes, ranging in color from white to yellow to red. Some galaxies, mostly the redder galaxies, are distorted, appearing to be stretched out or mirror imaged. Just a little bit above the center, there is a bright source of light, a star, with 8 bright diffraction spikes extending out from it. Below the star are several noticeably fuzzy white galaxies that resemble cotton balls – these are part of a galaxy cluster. To the lower right of the star is a particularly long, red, thin line stretching from one o’clock to 7 o’clock. This is the Sunrise Arc.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:  Blue: F090W + F115W + F150W, Cyan: F200W, Green: F277W, Yellow: F356W, Orange: F410M,  Red: F444W

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

The image is split in half vertically to create two images. In the left image, a black background is scattered with hundreds of small galaxies of different shapes, ranging in color from white to yellow to red. Some galaxies, mostly the redder galaxies, are distorted, appearing to be stretched out or mirror imaged. Just a little bit above the center, there is a bright source of light, a star, with 8 bright diffraction spikes extending out from it. The right image is a zoomed-in portion of the image at the left, showing a particularly long, red, thin line that stretches from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock. There are several bright dots, some thicker than others, along this line, with one labeled as Earendel.

Sunrise Arc Zoom-In (NIRCam Image)

This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, and at the right, an inset of the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc. Within that galaxy is the most distant star ever...

Image titled “James Webb Space Telescope; WHL J013719.8-082841” with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key. In the center is a near-infrared image of a field of galaxies with one very bright star. At the lower left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 7 o’clock. The north arrow points toward 11 o’clock. At the bottom right is a scale bar labeled 30 arcseconds. The length of the scale bar is about one tenth of the total image. Below the image is a color key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. NIRCam filters from left to right: F090W, F115W, and F150W are blue; F200W is cyan, F277W is green; F356W is yellow, F410M is orange, and F444W is red.

Sunrise Arc (NIRCam Compass Image)

This is an image of the WHL0137-08 galaxy cluster, which includes the Sunrise Arc galaxy, with compass arrows, scale bar and color key. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky...

Telescope image including distant stars is overlaid with a semi-transparent graphic representing the constellation Cetus, as a sea monster. Thin blue lines connect the actual stars of the constellations.

Zoom to the Sunrise Arc

Travel to the massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, which contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected. The journey begins with a ground-based image by...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA

Science Credit

Dan Coe (STScI/AURA for ESA, JHU), Brian Welch (NASA-GSFC, UMD)

Image Processing Credit

Zoltan Levay

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