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Our Solar System is incredibly old by human standards. The Sun, sitting in the center, is thought to be just over 4.6 billion years old, which is an almost unfathomable amount of time.
Milky Way galaxy reveals that it's a whole lot older than anyone thought. In fact, it's old enough to make our own star look like a youngster by comparison. The elderly star is called 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B, and what it lacks in a flash. Astronomers now believe it to be an incredible 13.5 billion years old.
2MASS J18 … you know what? Let's just call it "the Old Star," for now. The Old Star gives away its ages thanks to its incredibly low mass and metal content. Researchers believe that new stars tend to be very high in metallicity, but the Old Star's metal content is incredibly low. It's also very small, weighing in at only around 1 / 10th of the mass of our own Sun.
Andrew Casey, astrophysicist Andrew Casey, co-author of the study published The Astrophysical Journal, told ScienceAlert. "This discovery tells us that the first stars in the Universe did not have to be massive stars that died long ago. These ancient stars could be one of those relics from the Big Bang could still exist today. "
So, how long does it last? Well, its very small size actually plays a role in its favor, as very large stars tend to burn through their fuel much faster than the particularly tiny ones. The Old Star is just one of the most popular fuel-saving devices in the world.
Its small size and its size makes it hard to spot, and the team suggests that there are plenty of other ultra-old stars sitting around the Milky Way that have remained undetected because we can not see them all that well.
Image Source: NASA
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