Is This The Most Ancient Star in the Universe?

Experts say it could be from just the second generation of stars after the big bang.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:04 The universe is old, around 13.8 billion years old to be exact.

00:08 But while many cosmic objects like stars come and go, they can live for a long time.

00:12 And now researchers believe they have just discovered one of the oldest living stars in the universe.

00:17 Its technical name is S+J210428.01-004934.2, and it's 16,000 light years away.

00:27 So how do astronomers from the National Science Foundation know it's so old?

00:30 Experts analyzed the chemical makeup using cosmic spectrometers,

00:34 finding that it contained elements produced only from first-generation stars.

00:38 But also, it's extremely low in later-generation materials like carbon, iron, oxygen, magnesium, and lithium,

00:44 as early universe composition was less stars and planets and more clouds of helium and hydrogen.

00:49 This discovery not only means this is the first second-generation star we've ever identified,

00:54 but it could also point us in the direction of even older stars,

00:57 perhaps even ones that were created in the first moments of the universe.

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