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Scientists are excited about the newly discovered star that lives in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The reason for the excitement is that the star is tiny and is about 13.5 billion years old. The star is known as 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B, and one of its main features is its very low metal count.
Scientists say that in the primitive universe, there were no metals. It is thought that the metals that are abundant today were created in the heart of these first stars, and then thrown into the universe when these ancient stars went out. This means that the younger the star, the more metals there are inside. 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B has the smallest number of metals of all the stars ever discovered, at about 10% of the metallicity of the Earth.
This discovery could mean that the Milky Way is much older than the current estimate used by scientists between 8 and 10 billion years ago. This newly discovered star is also very small and represents about 10% of the mass of the sun, which places it at the lower limit of the ability to burn hydrogen. This discovery is in contradiction with the notions of ancient stars. Many scientists thought that the first stars were huge and had long since disappeared.
2MASS J18082002-5104378 B is so small and so dark that it has not been detected yet. It was discovered because it is part of a binary pair. The little star was discovered during the study of his more massive partner partner. Scientists say that a star as small as 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B could live for billions of years.
The discovery of this very small and feeble star has led scientists to wonder how many other old and old stars are still there waiting to be discovered. Scientists say that finding a star of this type is as rare as finding a needle among an acre of haystacks.
SOURCE: Journal of Astrophysics
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