Astronomer Patrick Kelly of the University of Minnesota is the lead author of the finding, published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Continuous monitoring of the star Icarus may one day rule out the possibility that primordial black holes constitute a sizable fraction of dark matter.

[9] Normally, the only astronomical objects that can be detected at this range would be either whole galaxies, quasars, or supernovas, but the light from the star was magnified by the lensing effect.

[11] Because the visible light is the redshifted ultraviolet tail, the star does not appear blue to us but reddish or pink.

[11] The formal name MACS J1149 is a reference to MAssive Cluster Survey and the star's coordinates in the J2000 astronomical epoch.