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Wow... discovering some of the oldest stars in our galactic neighborhood is a remarkable thing
by ErigmolCt 2y ago
Wow... discovering some of the oldest stars in our galactic neighborhood is a remarkable thing
- marcosdumay 2y agoShouldn't they be distributed everywhere? Finding some close to us is just expected.
- SiempreViernes 2y agoSure, it's not surprising that some exist in our galaxy, but actually finding some is still remarkable!
- actionfromafar 2y agoAren't some galaxies older than other.
- Sharlin 2y agoIndeed. And there should be plenty of them, given that a large fraction of all stars (evidently including these three) are K-type orange dwarfs slightly smaller and cooler than the sun. They last tens of billions of years on the main sequence, burning their hydrogen at a leisurely pace. A large majority of stars born back then should still be alive and kicking long after the sun is gone.
- xenadu02 2y agoThey are distributed everywhere. These three are among the oldest and presumably of similar age to other "oldest" stars in other galaxies. I take it to mean many galaxies have surviving stars from the population of stars expected to still exist. Honestly it seems obvious. Any given galaxy will either be as old as those stars, formed from the merger of other galaxies some of which are old, or will have stolen some stars from an old galaxy during a flyby. This story boils down to "at large scale stars are roughly evenly distributed".
- caf 2y agoThat plays it down far too much, because what's actually interesting here is that we have been able to identify three specific nearby examples.
- mr_toad 2y agoOne of the oldest is only 200 LY away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_140283 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_140283