Found the oldest stars in the Universe

Australian scientists have discovered cosmic dolgozhitelnitsa - the oldest, as they say, a star in the universe, whose age is about 13, 6 billion years. It is located in the 6 th. Light-years from Earth.

With the help of a telescope SkyMapper scientists from Australia have discovered a new object in the sky, which they say is the oldest stars in the universe of all known. Age of the star, located in the 6 th. Light-years from Earth, is about 13, 6 billion years. Thus, it was formed after only a few million years after the Big Bang - a common cosmological model describing the early development of the universe - namely, the beginning of the expansion of the universe, to which the universe was in a singular state.

First generation of stars formed after the Big Bang had gigantic dimensions, but were highly volatile and there were quite a short period of time. We have found the star of the second generation. We were incredibly surprised when they made this discovery, since the probability of finding such a star is one in 60 million. I believe that to find our older stars - it is simply impossible.

- Stefan Keller, head of the group of astronomers

When the primordial nucleosynthesis - the formation of nuclei of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen in the reaction of nuclear fusion (merger) - in the first minutes of the Universe there any hydrogen (75%), helium (25%), and traces of lithium and beryllium. The first stars formed later, consisted only of these elements, they practically do not contain metals. Age of the new stars have been defined by the fact that in the spectrum of the object was discovered the smallest of the known value of iron content - metallicity.

Metalliichnost (astrophysics) - the relative concentration of elements heavier than helium (they are called in astronomy metals) in stars and galaxies. Is an indicator of the age of the star system.

Metallicity value for very old stars lies between -2 and -1 (ie, the content of heavy elements in them less of the sun 10 to 100 times). The new star metallicity over--7.

Currently, a new star has not yet received the name it is registered under the number SMSS J031300.36-670839.3.