Scientists say grumpy old star is almost as old as the universe

If you think you have a cranky old neighbor, just imagine how the sun feels. Scientists have discovered that HD 140283, a metalpoor star just 190 light years from the sun, is a staggering 14.48+-.80 billion years old. Whoa. That's just about as old as the universe, in case you haven't been keeping track of typical stellar ages. The metal content of stars is often used to help determine their age, since heavy metals come from supernovas and pollute other stars forming nearby. So when a star like HD 140283 has just 1 percent of the Sun's iron content, you know there weren't a lot of stars hanging around before it got here. [Source]

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