This 13.5-Billion-Year-Old Star Is a Tiny Relic from Just After the Big Bang
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer | November 8, 2018 07:20am ET
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https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA4MC81NTcvb3JpZ2luYWwvdGlueS11bXAtc3Rhcl8xMDI0OTAwLmpwZw==
The newly identified star located within the yellow box of this image is half of a binary.
Credit: ESO/BELETSKY/DSS1 + DSS2 + 2MASS
Astronomers think they have identified a star they believe to be about 13.5 billion years old, which would place its birth just after the Big Bang and it's surprisingly close to us.
The new discovery suggests that our own corner of the galaxy may be older than previously calculated, and scientists hope that studying the star, called 2MASS J180820025104378 B, may teach us more about the early days of the universe.
"This star is maybe one in 10 million," lead author Kevin Schlaufman, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University, said in a release. "It tells us something very important about the first generations of stars."
It's also an unusual star in terms of its orbit: It is tucked in the thin disk of the Milky Way and remains within the galactic plane, like our sun does, rather than orbiting away from the plane, as most stars short of metals do.
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