The James Webb Space Telescope Took its Best Picture Yet

There is absolutely nothing special about the star known to astronomers as 2MASS J17554042+6551277. It's a nice bright star, yes—about 16 times brighter than the sun. And it's located relatively close to Earth, as these things go—about 2,000 light years away. But it's just one of up to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and until recently, nobody gave it a lot of thought.

But late last week, 2MASS J17554042+6551277 became the most famous star known to science outside of our own sun.