Astronomers¹ using the Hubble Space Telescope have found the farthest star ever observed.

近日，天文学家用哈勃太空望远镜发现了迄今最遥远的恒星。

The discovery required the fortuitous alignment² of a massive galactic cluster. The cluster warped³ the starlight, bending it toward Earth while magnifying the star 2,000 times.

这一发现需要一个大规模星系团的偶然对齐。该星团使恒星的星光偏离了原本的方向，照向地球，将这颗恒星放大了2000倍。

Officially, the star's name is MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1. But the astronomers call it Icarus.

这颗恒星的正式名称为MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1。但是天文学家们则称其为“伊卡洛斯”。

It was a hundredfold more distant than any other star previously⁴ detected, according to Patrick Kelly, an astrophysicist at the University of Minnesota.

明尼苏达大学的天文物理学家帕特里克·凯利称，该恒星比此前发现的任何其他恒星都要远一百倍。

"The discovery of Icarus allows us to gather new insights into the constituents⁵ of the galaxy⁶ cluster," explains Steven Rodney, an astrophysicist at the University of South Carolina.

南卡罗来纳大学的天文物理学家史蒂芬·罗德尼解释称：“伊卡洛斯的发现，使我们能够对星系群的组成部分有新的认识。”

Normally only phenomena⁷ like supernovas -- catastrophic stellar explosions -- or entire galaxies⁸ are detectable⁹ at such vast distances.

一般而言，只有超新星等现象（灾难性的恒星爆炸）或整个星系才能在如此远的距离下被观测到。