Strange 'Methuselah' Star Looks Older Than the Universe

Space ^ | 3-7-2013 | Mike Wall

[Sir Napsalot]

The oldest known star appears to be older than the universe itself, but a new study is helping to clear up this seeming paradox.

Previous research had estimated that the Milky Way galaxy's so-called "Methuselah star" is up to 16 billion years old. That's a problem, since most researchers agree that the Big Bang that created the universe occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.

The uncertainty Bond refers to is plus or minus 800 million years, which means the star could actually be 13.7 billion years old — younger than the universe as it's currently understood, though just barely. Now a team of astronomers has derived a new, less nonsensical age for the Methuselah star, incorporating information about its distance, brightness, composition and structure.

"Put all of those ingredients together, and you get an age of 14.5 billion years, with a residual uncertainty that makes the star's age compatible with the age of the universe," study lead author Howard Bond, of Pennsylvania State University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said in a statement.

The uncertainty Bond refers to is plus or minus 800 million years, which means the star could actually be 13.7 billion years old — younger than the universe as it's currently understood, though just barely.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Like an atom, takes up space, but most of the space is made up of nothing.

But....if it is 'space' then it is not 'nothing'. Space is a something.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Excellent retort! It seems MestaMachine would make a good radical Green Party kook. Let’s all live in caves and eat twigs and berries.

[zeugma]

The Milky Way and Andromeda are going to collide and during that collision, not much is going to touch one and other. Space is vast.

True, but the gravitational effects are huge, especially the cores of each galaxy. Of course the time scale of the event puts even the longest slo-mo to shame, but I've seen modeled predictions of the interaction, and it's pretty cool. The merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda will pretty much double the size of our home galaxy as far as mass is concerned.

[zeugma]

Wow. If those sizes are accurate, HD140283 is beyond huge.

Betelgeuse is almost a million times the size of our sun.

If you haven't ever done so, I strobngly recommend you download Celestia (free, with Linux, Mac and Win versions available). It is extraordinarily cool to see what Betelgeuse looks like from various distances.  For instance, if you go to Pluto, and look at the Sun and note how many AU Pluto is from the Sun. (this varies significantly during its orbit) Then go to Betelgeuse and see what it looks like in the sky from the same distance. Zooming in to Jupiter's orbit yeilds surprising results, and I think it give a pretty good feel for the size of that monster star.

Celestia is the coolest program on the planet IMO.

[GreenHornet]

What was there before the so-called Big Bang????

The Big Dinner and a couple of drinks.

[ZX12R]

But....if it is 'space' then it is not 'nothing'. Space is a something.

Okay, then we'll say it's absence of stuff, other than space.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I have it on my home PC. Haven’t touched it in a while. I’ll have to play with it when I get home next week.

[reed13k]

Which is a conundrum wrapped in a riddle within an enigma for those who don’t believe in creation because one of the rules is you can’t create or destory energy and/or mass you may only convert them between.

Or so this physics major was taught...

[The Cajun]

First I've heard about this, they gots some *splaining* to do.
Love these types of little anomalies, keeps science interesting.

[Sir Napsalot]

>>> Love these types of little anomalies, keeps science interesting.

Isn't it though? When experts think they have a neat theory to explain most things, and out pops some knuckle ball.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Maybe they have found God’s desk light......