Earlier this year, a team of astronomers at Johns Hopkins University led by Brian Welch, a PhD candidate, discovered the most distant known star ever recorded. While the discovery itself is incredible, and has been widely reported on for the past month and a half, there was one thing in particular that caught my attention: the star is named after a character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. There’s a reason for that. But first, it’s important to discuss how the star — named “Earendel” — was actually discovered.
The first thing to know about Earendel is that its light takes approximately 12.9 billion years to reach Earth. To put this into context: the previous record-holder, Icarus, takes 9.4 billion years. The difference between those two figures is equal to over 75% of the Earth’s lifetime — it is unimaginably colossal.
“This large jump in distance is likely a coincidence. Finding gravitationally lensed stars is still a fairly new thing, so not many people are actively looking. I was focusing on some highly magnified distant galaxies, so I happened to find an extremely magnified distant star,” Welch tells IGN, referring to the effect that occurs when light travels through space that has been distorted by a massive object.
At the time of discovery, he was studying the Sunrise Arc, which is the galaxy Earendel calls home. For some reason, all of his research kept predicting a single point here while he was working from an office in his basement back in 2020 — two years later, Earendel was revealed to the world.
“Tolkien’s character Eärendil was definitely the original inspiration for the name,” Welch confirms. “Once we were reasonably sure this object was a star, I started brainstorming possible names. Eärendil was one of the first things to come to mind, since he ends up sailing his ship Vingilot through the heavens with the Silmaril on his brow, becoming a star and a symbol of hope over Middle-earth.
“As I looked into it further, I found that Tolkien’s original inspiration for the character was an Old English word Earendel, meaning Morning Star, which appears in a poem entitled Crist — ‘Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast. Ofer Middangeard monnum sended.’ ‘Hail Earendel, brightest of angels. Sent to men over Middle-earth.’ The ‘morning star’ reference worked particularly well, since this is a time period often referred to as Cosmic Dawn, so that kind of sealed the deal for me. And the Old English morning star reference was enough to convince my less Tolkien-savvy co-authors that the name worked well.”
As for Earendel itself, there are a few things we already know for sure about it. The distance between it and Earth was determined using the redshift, which refers to the phenomenon of light becoming stretched to longer, redder wavelengths as the universe continues to expand. We also know it weighs in at a mass that’s approximately 50 times greater than that of the Sun, which it shines 1 million to 10 million times brighter than. In the future, scientists will be able to decipher what the star is actually made of, which is of particular interest when you consider that its discovery has pulled us slightly closer toward being able to view the very first generation of stars — another detail that makes its “Morning Star” moniker particularly apt.
According to Welch, this opens up a new way to study the distant universe. Astronomers already hypothesised it would eventually be possible to locate the earliest generation of stars to have formed, but this discovery validates that idea. For the first time ever, astrophysicists will be able to explore stars from when conditions were much different to what we see in the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies today.
“Tolkien’s character Eärendil was definitely the original inspiration for the name.”
“So far, all we know of the first generation stars (often referred to as Population III stars) comes from theoretical models and simulations,” Welch says. “We don’t have any observations yet to compare these models to. If we can find Pop III stars, we can finally start testing our theories and figuring out how these stars, which are predicted to form out of only primordial hydrogen and helium, differ from the average stars we see today.
“These stars are the forges that create many of the heavier elements that end up forming the building blocks for new generations of stars, planets, and eventually us people, so figuring out how the first stars form these heavier elements gives us more insight into how we came to be.”
All of this testifies to how critical Welch’s discovery truly is — by proving that the universe’s oldest stars are within our reach, it brings us much closer to being able to determine how and why we’re here today. Welch is quick to point out that gravitational lensing is not new — people have been looking at gravitationally lensed galaxies for decades, and the theoretical predictions of gravitational lensing have been around since Einstein's theory of General Relativity. What is new — and what Welch has proved is worthwhile — is the practice of looking for gravitationally lensed stars in distant galaxies, which have been predicted for ages, but weren’t properly discovered until 2018.
“We expect to see many such galaxies with JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) and other future telescopes, so the odds of finding more extremely magnified stars in the early universe are actually pretty good,” Welch says. “Personally, I expect Earendel’s distance record to fall within the first few years of JWST observations.”
Until then, Earendel will retain its title as the most distant known star to have been discovered yet. But there’s another point of interest that will endure and has yet to be discussed: its Tolkienian etymology.
Welch is a long-time Tolkien fan who claims that The Professor’s works are some of the few he will never tire of re-reading. That being said, he didn’t set out with the goal of naming Earendel after something from Tolkien — he just wanted to come up with a name that made sense, and would fit on several different levels.
One thing the Tolkien-savvy might pick up on is the disparity between The Silmarillion’s spelling — “Eärendil” — and the spelling used for the star, Earendel. Interestingly, Eärendil itself is derived from Earendel, as Welch correctly observes above. However, it also means “Lover of the Sea” in Quenya, one of Tolkien’s fictional Elvish languages. There’s actually a lore reason for the change to Eärendil that acknowledges its etymological root as Earendel, in that it was initially based on the Quenya for “earen,” meaning “eagle.” It wasn’t until he decided to change his name to mean “Lover of the Sea” that it shifted to “ear” (sea) “(en)dil” (to love) — Eärendil , Lover of the Sea.
As for who Eärendil is, most people who watched Peter Jackson’s trilogy will likely be unfamiliar with him — although you will know his son, Elrond. Funnily enough, Aragorn and Arwen are both descendants of Eärendil, meaning that if you trace their family trees back far enough, they’re technically related. (He’s Arwen’s grandad, and Aragorn’s great-great-great-great-loads-and-loads-of-greats grandad). Sorry if that ruins The Lord of the Rings for you.
You also might know his name from what Frodo shouts as he takes out the Phial of Galadriel in Shelob’s Lair: “Aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima!”, or “Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars.” This refers to the line from Crist that inspired Eärendil in the first place: “Éala éarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended.”
Most people who watched Peter Jackson’s trilogy will likely be unfamiliar with Eärendil — although you will know his son, Elrond.
One of the most interesting things about this is that Tolkien first penned Eärendil based on Crist in 1914, meaning that he was technically the character who kicked off the Middle-earth legendarium. In Humphrey Carter’s biography of Tolkien, it is also made apparent that the phrase is responsible for the name “Middle-earth.” Welch wanted a name that was well-suited to what could be the gateway to the first generation of stars — when you consider all of this information together, it’s pretty clear that he found one.
It’s not unusual for astronomers to name their discoveries. Welch explains that on top of their technical alphanumeric designations, they are often nicknamed by the people who find them. There are other stars called Icarus, Spock, and Warhol for example — but precious few are named as aptly as this one.
“I considered a few other Morning Star names, generally various ancient deities associated with the planet Venus, which is the typical morning star,” Welch says. “My mom also suggested that I should name it ‘Brian’s Mom’s Star,’ but unfortunately the IAU guidelines prohibit naming stars after people.
“If I am fortunate enough to find another distant star, I don’t know what I’ll name it. I’ll probably again spend way too much time trying to pick a name that fits just right, and I don’t plan to restrict myself to any single source.”
Cian Maher is a freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter.
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The first thing to know about Earendel is that its light takes approximately 12.9 billion years to reach Earth. To put this into context: the previous record-holder, Icarus, takes 9.4 billion years. The difference between those two figures is equal to over 75% of the Earth’s lifetime — it is unimaginably colossal.
“This large jump in distance is likely a coincidence. Finding gravitationally lensed stars is still a fairly new thing, so not many people are actively looking. I was focusing on some highly magnified distant galaxies, so I happened to find an extremely magnified distant star,” Welch tells IGN, referring to the effect that occurs when light travels through space that has been distorted by a massive object.
At the time of discovery, he was studying the Sunrise Arc, which is the galaxy Earendel calls home. For some reason, all of his research kept predicting a single point here while he was working from an office in his basement back in 2020 — two years later, Earendel was revealed to the world.
“Tolkien’s character Eärendil was definitely the original inspiration for the name,” Welch confirms. “Once we were reasonably sure this object was a star, I started brainstorming possible names. Eärendil was one of the first things to come to mind, since he ends up sailing his ship Vingilot through the heavens with the Silmaril on his brow, becoming a star and a symbol of hope over Middle-earth.
“As I looked into it further, I found that Tolkien’s original inspiration for the character was an Old English word Earendel, meaning Morning Star, which appears in a poem entitled Crist — ‘Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast. Ofer Middangeard monnum sended.’ ‘Hail Earendel, brightest of angels. Sent to men over Middle-earth.’ The ‘morning star’ reference worked particularly well, since this is a time period often referred to as Cosmic Dawn, so that kind of sealed the deal for me. And the Old English morning star reference was enough to convince my less Tolkien-savvy co-authors that the name worked well.”
As for Earendel itself, there are a few things we already know for sure about it. The distance between it and Earth was determined using the redshift, which refers to the phenomenon of light becoming stretched to longer, redder wavelengths as the universe continues to expand. We also know it weighs in at a mass that’s approximately 50 times greater than that of the Sun, which it shines 1 million to 10 million times brighter than. In the future, scientists will be able to decipher what the star is actually made of, which is of particular interest when you consider that its discovery has pulled us slightly closer toward being able to view the very first generation of stars — another detail that makes its “Morning Star” moniker particularly apt.
According to Welch, this opens up a new way to study the distant universe. Astronomers already hypothesised it would eventually be possible to locate the earliest generation of stars to have formed, but this discovery validates that idea. For the first time ever, astrophysicists will be able to explore stars from when conditions were much different to what we see in the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies today.
“Tolkien’s character Eärendil was definitely the original inspiration for the name.”
“So far, all we know of the first generation stars (often referred to as Population III stars) comes from theoretical models and simulations,” Welch says. “We don’t have any observations yet to compare these models to. If we can find Pop III stars, we can finally start testing our theories and figuring out how these stars, which are predicted to form out of only primordial hydrogen and helium, differ from the average stars we see today.
“These stars are the forges that create many of the heavier elements that end up forming the building blocks for new generations of stars, planets, and eventually us people, so figuring out how the first stars form these heavier elements gives us more insight into how we came to be.”
All of this testifies to how critical Welch’s discovery truly is — by proving that the universe’s oldest stars are within our reach, it brings us much closer to being able to determine how and why we’re here today. Welch is quick to point out that gravitational lensing is not new — people have been looking at gravitationally lensed galaxies for decades, and the theoretical predictions of gravitational lensing have been around since Einstein's theory of General Relativity. What is new — and what Welch has proved is worthwhile — is the practice of looking for gravitationally lensed stars in distant galaxies, which have been predicted for ages, but weren’t properly discovered until 2018.
“We expect to see many such galaxies with JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) and other future telescopes, so the odds of finding more extremely magnified stars in the early universe are actually pretty good,” Welch says. “Personally, I expect Earendel’s distance record to fall within the first few years of JWST observations.”
Until then, Earendel will retain its title as the most distant known star to have been discovered yet. But there’s another point of interest that will endure and has yet to be discussed: its Tolkienian etymology.
Welch is a long-time Tolkien fan who claims that The Professor’s works are some of the few he will never tire of re-reading. That being said, he didn’t set out with the goal of naming Earendel after something from Tolkien — he just wanted to come up with a name that made sense, and would fit on several different levels.
One thing the Tolkien-savvy might pick up on is the disparity between The Silmarillion’s spelling — “Eärendil” — and the spelling used for the star, Earendel. Interestingly, Eärendil itself is derived from Earendel, as Welch correctly observes above. However, it also means “Lover of the Sea” in Quenya, one of Tolkien’s fictional Elvish languages. There’s actually a lore reason for the change to Eärendil that acknowledges its etymological root as Earendel, in that it was initially based on the Quenya for “earen,” meaning “eagle.” It wasn’t until he decided to change his name to mean “Lover of the Sea” that it shifted to “ear” (sea) “(en)dil” (to love) — Eärendil , Lover of the Sea.
As for who Eärendil is, most people who watched Peter Jackson’s trilogy will likely be unfamiliar with him — although you will know his son, Elrond. Funnily enough, Aragorn and Arwen are both descendants of Eärendil, meaning that if you trace their family trees back far enough, they’re technically related. (He’s Arwen’s grandad, and Aragorn’s great-great-great-great-loads-and-loads-of-greats grandad). Sorry if that ruins The Lord of the Rings for you.
You also might know his name from what Frodo shouts as he takes out the Phial of Galadriel in Shelob’s Lair: “Aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima!”, or “Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars.” This refers to the line from Crist that inspired Eärendil in the first place: “Éala éarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended.”
Most people who watched Peter Jackson’s trilogy will likely be unfamiliar with Eärendil — although you will know his son, Elrond.
One of the most interesting things about this is that Tolkien first penned Eärendil based on Crist in 1914, meaning that he was technically the character who kicked off the Middle-earth legendarium. In Humphrey Carter’s biography of Tolkien, it is also made apparent that the phrase is responsible for the name “Middle-earth.” Welch wanted a name that was well-suited to what could be the gateway to the first generation of stars — when you consider all of this information together, it’s pretty clear that he found one.
It’s not unusual for astronomers to name their discoveries. Welch explains that on top of their technical alphanumeric designations, they are often nicknamed by the people who find them. There are other stars called Icarus, Spock, and Warhol for example — but precious few are named as aptly as this one.
“I considered a few other Morning Star names, generally various ancient deities associated with the planet Venus, which is the typical morning star,” Welch says. “My mom also suggested that I should name it ‘Brian’s Mom’s Star,’ but unfortunately the IAU guidelines prohibit naming stars after people.
“If I am fortunate enough to find another distant star, I don’t know what I’ll name it. I’ll probably again spend way too much time trying to pick a name that fits just right, and I don’t plan to restrict myself to any single source.”
Cian Maher is a freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...