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Scientists have found a star with such a small mass.
The researchers took the power of speech: in our galaxy found something very ancient and mysterious.
Recently, researchers from the Monash University in Australia found themselves to be an old star in the Milky Way galaxy. His age is 13.5 billion years old. Scientists have called the discovery of 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B.
In the end, it remained unnoticed because of its small size and lackluster appearance. To see the old star managed only through its brighter neighbor bigger. In addition, researchers discovered its age through detailed spectral analysis.
The fact that the first generation of stars formed after the Big Bang consisted of light elements like hydrogen, helium and lithium. Then they gradually increased the number of metals. Thus, the "metallicity" of the stars was a good indicator to determine their age.
According to scientists, 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B refers to the second generation of stars. Check that its mass represents only 10% of the mass of the Sun and that the amount of metals it contains represents 10% of all the metals of our planet.
Astrophysicist Andrew Casey admitted that, for the first time, he had discovered a star with such a tiny mass and minute amounts of metals. There is also the assumption that in our galaxy there could be other old stars, but they will not be easy to detect because of their small size.
"These stars are extremely rare – the process of finding them is like looking for needles in a haystack. But because of the huge amount of data collected by terrestrial and space telescopes, we are more than ever figuring out how stars formed in the early Universe, "Casey said.
This discovery provides an opportunity to learn about the formation of stars in the Universe. As one of the oldest stars is located in the thin disk of the Milky Way, the age issue of our galaxy has been reopened. Maybe she's a lot older than we thought before.
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