Discover the most 'senior' star in the universe

Astronomers from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) have discovered that the oldest star in cosmos was formed at least 13.2 billion years ago.

The new star was named HD 140283 by astronomers. It is located about 186 light-years from Earth and was formed at least 13.2 billion years ago or longer. HD 140283 is considered the oldest star in the universe discovered so far.

'We believe this is the oldest star in the universe to determine the exact age ever, ' said Howard Bond, a member of the research team, on the Daily Mail.

Star simulation image HD 140283.

Because the star HD 140283 was discovered to contain some heavy elements, astronomers meant that it was one of the second generation stars formed shortly after the Big Bang - the beginning of the forming the universe.

The first generation of forming stars did not contain elements heavier than helium, but when they exploded in a supernova chain several hundred million years after formation, they were replaced by stars like HD 140283 .

The scientists calculated the age of the HD 140283 star using data from the Hubble space telescope. These data allow them to measure the exact distance from the star to Earth. Since then, the team can calculate the glow and age of the star.

In this way scientists have calculated the age of the HD 140283 star that astronomers calculate is 13.9 billion years. However, these calculations often have a large margin of error. In the case of the star HD 140283, the margin of error is 700 million years, making its actual age of only 13.2 billion years.

The methuselah2 star was previously calculated to be about 13.2 billion years old, but the researchers claim that the data used to calculate the star's age HD 140283 is more accurate.