Astronomers at The Australian National University Discover Oldest Star in the Universe

By using the ANU SkyMapper telescope at the Sliding Spring Observatory in Australia, a team of astronomers was able to discover the oldest known star in the Universe, which is believed to have formed nearly 13.7 billion years ago.

The discovery is both a notable one for The Australian National University as well as for astronomers all over the world. Located about 6,000 light years from Earth, the star is likely to open the floodgates for further studies into the chemistry of the Universe's first stars.

The ANU SkyMapper telescope was long overdue for such a discovery, as it has photographed over 60 million stars in its first year of use. The telescope is currently under a five-year project to produce the first digital map of the southern sky.

Dr. Stephen Keller of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics was the lead researcher on this project and has been working extensively with the SkyMapper in its first year of operation.

"This is the first time that we've been able to unambiguously say that we've found the chemical fingerprint of a first star," said Dr. Keller in this EurekAlert! article. "This is one of the first steps in understanding what those first stars were like. What this star has enabled us to do is record the fingerprint of those first stars."

Keller and his team also uncovered that the composition of the star formed in the wake of a primordial star, which is believed to have had a mass 60 times larger than the Sun. The ancient star also refutes the previous belief that all primordial stars died in explosions that polluted space with massive amounts of iron. This star showed signs of pollution with carbon and magnesium.

The ancient star may provide new information about the infancy of the universe as well as create debate in regards to previous beliefs of the Big Bang Theory.

To read more about the discovery of the ancient star made at The Australian National University, visit this EurekAlert! article.