The age of the oldest known stars approaches the age of the universe, about 13.8 billion years. Some of these are among the first stars from reionization (the stellar dawn), ending the Dark Ages about 370,000 years after the Big Bang.[1] This list includes stars older than 12 billion years, or about 87% of the age of the universe.

List

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Name Age
(billions of years)
Mass (M) Distance (ly) Location Notes
BD+17°3248 13.8 ± 4[2][a] ~0.8 968 Milky Way halo High uncertainty in age
2MASS J18082002−5104378 13.53[3][4] ~0.8 1,950 Milky Way thin disk
SMSS J031300.36−670839.3 13.4[5] ~0.75 6,000 Milky Way halo or Globular clusters
J173823.38-145701.1[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.85 28,000 Milky Way bulge
J182048.26-273329.2[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 20,000 Milky Way bulge
J183744.90-280831.1[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 57,400 Milky Way bulge
J183647.89-274333.1[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 22,000 Milky Way bulge
J183812.72-270746.3[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 40,100 Milky Way bulge
J183719.09-262725.0[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 32,600 Milky Way bulge
J184201.19-302159.6[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 31,000 Milky Way bulge
J184656.07-292351.5[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.75 31,000 Milky Way bulge
J181406.68-313106.1[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 30,000 Milky Way bulge
J181317.69-343801.9[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.75 21,000 Milky Way bulge
J181219.68-343726.4[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.75 26,000 Milky Way bulge
J181609.62-333218.7[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 33,900 Milky Way bulge
J181634.60-340342.5[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 34,200 Milky Way bulge
J175544.54-392700.9[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 44,000 Milky Way bulge
J175455.52-380339.3[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 44,000 Milky Way bulge
J175746.58-384750.0[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.75 30,000 Milky Way bulge
J181736.59-391303.3[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 51,200 Milky Way bulge
J181505.16-385514.9[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 16,000 Milky Way bulge
J181921.64-381429.0[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 16,500 Milky Way bulge
J175722.68-411731.8[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.85 40,400 Milky Way bulge
J175021.86-414627.1[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 13,000 Milky Way bulge
J175636.59-403545.9[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 32,000 Milky Way bulge
J175433.19-411048.9[6] 13.2 or more[7] ~0.8 18,000 Milky Way bulge
PSR B1620−26 12.7–11.2[8] 1.35[citation needed] 12,400 Globular cluster Messier 4 Host star of one of the oldest exoplanets.
Gliese 414 12.4±5.2[9] 0.65 38.7 Milky Way disk Host two exoplanets
HD 140283 12±0.05[10] 0.81 200.5 Milky Way halo Previously thought to be the oldest known star, at 14.46±0.8 Gyr[11]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Note conflicting estimates: Star’s estimated age exceeds the estimated age of the universe.

References

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  1. ^ Barkana, Rennan (1 March 2018). "Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars". Nature. 555 (7694): 71–74. arXiv:1803.06698. Bibcode:2018Natur.555...71B. doi:10.1038/nature25791. PMID 29493590. S2CID 4391544.
  2. ^ Cowan, John J.; Sneden, Christopher; Burles, Scott; Ivans, Inese I.; Beers, Timothy C.; Truran, James W.; et al. (June 2002). "The Chemical Composition and Age of the Metal-poor Halo Star BD +17°3248". The Astrophysical Journal. 572 (2): 861–879. arXiv:astro-ph/0202429. Bibcode:2002ApJ...572..861C. doi:10.1086/340347. S2CID 119503888.
  3. ^ Schlaufman, Kevin C.; Thompson, Ian B.; Casey, Andrew R. (5 November 2018). "An ultra metal-poor star near the hydrogen-burning limit". The Astrophysical Journal. 867 (2): 98. arXiv:1811.00549. Bibcode:2018ApJ...867...98S. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aadd97. S2CID 54511945.
  4. ^ "One of Milky Way's oldest stars discovered". SciNews.com. 6 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  5. ^ Ishigaki, Miho N.; Tominaga, Nozomu; Kobayashi, Chiaki; Nomoto, Ken'ichi (2014). "Faint Population III supernovae as the origin of the most iron-poor stars". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 792 (2): L32. arXiv:1404.4817. Bibcode:2014ApJ...792L..32I. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/792/2/L32. S2CID 119012372.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w
    Howes, L.M.; Casey, A.R.; Asplund, M.; Keller, S.C.; Yong, D.; Nataf, D.M.; et al. (26 November 2015). "Extremely metal-poor stars from the cosmic dawn in the bulge of the Milky Way". Nature. 527 (7579): 484–487. arXiv:1511.03930. Bibcode:2015Natur.527..484H. doi:10.1038/nature15747. hdl:2299/19217. PMID 26560034. S2CID 4446599.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w
    Tumlinson, Jason (2010). "Chemical evolution in hierarchical models of cosmic structure. II. The formation of the Milky Way stellar halo and the distribution of the oldest stars". The Astrophysical Journal. 708 (2): 1398–1418. arXiv:0911.1786. Bibcode:2010ApJ...708.1398T. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/708/2/1398. S2CID 118367629.
  8. ^ Lacki, Brian C.; Brzycki, Bryan; Croft, Steve; Czech, Daniel; DeBoer, David; DeMarines, Julia; Gajjar, Vishal; Isaacson, Howard; Lebofsky, Matt; MacMahon, David H. E.; Price, Danny C.; Sheikh, Sofia Z.; Siemion, Andrew P. V.; Drew, Jamie; Worden, S. Pete (1 December 2021). "One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 257 (2): 42. arXiv:2006.11304. Bibcode:2021ApJS..257...42L. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac168a. ISSN 0067-0049.
  9. ^ Dedrick, Cayla M.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Knutson, Heather A.; Howard, Andrew W.; Beatty, Thomas G.; Cargile, Phillip A.; Gaudi, B. Scott; Hirsch, Lea A.; Kuhn, Rudolf B.; Lund, Michael B.; James, David J.; Kosiarek, Molly R.; Pepper, Joshua; Petigura, Erik A.; Rodriguez, Joseph E. (1 February 2021). "Two Planets Straddling the Habitable Zone of the Nearby K Dwarf Gl 414A". The Astronomical Journal. 161 (2): 86. arXiv:2009.06503. Bibcode:2021AJ....161...86D. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abd0ef. ISSN 0004-6256.
  10. ^ Tang, Jianling; Joyce, Meridith (1 May 2021). "Revised Best Estimates for the Age and Mass of the Methuselah Star HD 140283 Using MESA and Interferometry and Implications for 1D Convection". Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. 5 (5): 117. arXiv:2105.11311. Bibcode:2021RNAAS...5..117T. doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ac01ca. ISSN 2515-5172.
  11. ^ "Hubble finds birth certificate of oldest known star". phys.org. Retrieved 6 June 2024.