What would you think if I told you that there was a star older than the universe?
The star is HD140283, whose Chinese name is Mathuselah, a star estimated to be older than the universe. Why is this star older than the universe? Is our theory wrong? Or is this star a remnant of the previous universe?
Today we're going to talk about the age of the universe and this star that is older than the universe!
Stars are definitely the protagonists of the universe of visible matter to humans, because even super-scary objects such as black holes evolved from stars, and the gravitational pull generated by stars and black holes maintains the fibrous structure of the entire macroscopic universe. Without the stars, the universe would truly rule the chaos.
The core of the solar system is undoubtedly the Sun, since the Sun alone accounts for more than 99% of the total mass of the entire solar system. This also leads to the fact that everything in the solar system moves around the sun, and the evolution of the universe is also related to the evolution of stars.
The first substance that appeared at the dawn of the universe was hydrogen, followed by helium. Stars are mainly made up of these two elements. The hydrogen in the core of the star is constantly fused into helium, which allows the star to shine outward. and heat, so all the heavy elements in the universe come from the gradual fusion of hydrogen. In other words, the various elements of the construction class are actually derived from the ancient stars.
The evolution of stars has a lot to do with the age of the stars. Over time, the stars will become brighter. When the hydrogen in the core fuses, the star is resurrected. Once this phase is over, the next phase begins. Stars that are smaller in size and mass will eventually expand into giants first, then slowly dim and eventually become black dwarfs.
These large, dense stars turn into black holes at the end of their evolution, and what we call Methuselah today is a star that is nearing the end of its life. What will happen to the sun in the future? Just as the star is gradually approaching the end of its life. Stars like our Sun have a lifespan of about 10 billion years, and this star Methuselah is one of the oldest stars known to man.
At first, scientists even believed that this star was the first star to appear at the beginning of the universe. But as we delved deeper, scientists discovered that there are some heavy elements in the body of this star. You know, the first nuclei that were really born in the universe were almost entirely composed of hydrogen and helium, and there should be no heavy elements. So from the elemental content of this star, we can conclude that this is not the first star to appear at the beginning of the universe.
So here's the problem. Since it was not one of the first stars to appear at the dawn of the universe, why is its existence so special? Even scientists believe it is older than the universe?
First of all, most of the first stars to be born in space were very large and massive. Few of these stars have survived to this day. Most of them evolved rapidly, driving the progress of the universe, which is why the second generation of stars, such as Methuselah, appeared.
First of all, we need to know that the age of the universe and the age of the stars are currently estimates, not exact. It can change at any time as human theories change and technology advances.
The current age of the universe is 1379.9 billion years, 2About 100 million years. Therefore, the maximum age of the universe should be 138Around 200 million years, that's already a very distant and long number. Well, the Earth and the solar system have only existed for just over 4 billion years, while the universe has existed for more than 10 billion years.
Scientists estimate the approximate age of the universe as it expands. Methuselah is located about 190 light-years from Earth. Its estimated age is about 13.9 billion years, making its maximum estimated age older than the universe.
However, this estimate is only the maximum and can fluctuate. The estimation error of the age of this star is about 800 million years, so the minimum age of this star is 13 billion years, so this star is not a product of the pre-universe, just because it is old enough, plus we have miscalculated, its maximum age is greater than the age of the universe.
Actually, considering the age of 13 billion years, this figure is the most correct. After all, this star is the second generation of stars in the universe. This is not the first group of stars to be born in the universe. He has to wait for the latest news. It took hundreds of millions of years for the first stars to start forming.
It is unrealistic to have stars older than the universe. However, research has actually improved our understanding of the universe and the evolution of stars.