By Camille Carlisle April 16: Astronomers have detected what
might be the farthest star ever spectroscopically observed. How
far away is the farthest star we can observe? Youichi Ohyama
(Academia Sinica, Taiwan) and Ananda Hota (UM-DAE Centre for
Excellence in Basic Sciences, India) might have an answer. Using
optical and ultraviolet observations from several instruments,
the duo has pinpointed what might be the farthest star
spectroscopically observed — at a dizzying 55 million light-
years away. The object is a compact source illustriously named
SDSS J122952.66+112227.8, a bright bluish blob in the clumpy,
55,000-light-year-long gas tail of the galaxy IC 3418. IC 3418
is falling into the 1,000-plus-member Virgo galaxy cluster, and
the tail probably formed due to ram pressure as the hot
intracluster medium stripped away the falling galaxy’s cool gas.
The tail’s brightness in ultraviolet and blue optical
wavelengths suggests that stars are forming inside its clumps,
so Ohyama and Hota decided to take a closer