coastal
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2009
- Messages
- 2,203
- Reaction score
- 4,714
The Greatest Cosmic Puzzle: Astronomers Find Stars That Appear Older Than The Universe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...-appear-older-than-the-universe/#219e24713c44
>>>snip
...If you understand how stars work, you can observe the physical properties of one of them and extrapolate its age, and know when it had to have been born. Stars undergo a lot of changes as they age: their radius, luminosity, and temperature all evolve as they burn through their fuel. But a star's lifespan, in general, is dependent on only two properties that it's born with: its mass and its metallicity, which is the amount of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium present within. The oldest stars we've found in the Universe are nearly pristine, where almost 100% of what makes them up is the hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. They come in at over 13 billion years old, with the oldest at 14.5 billion. And this is a big problem, because the Universe itself is only 13.8 billion years old...
< >
...In the end, that's the greatest situation any curious individual can hope to find themselves in. What seems like an impossibility might prove to be something even more valuable: a chance to push our knowledge of how the Universe works into hitherto unknown frontiers.
(article continues)
<<<snip
Science.
SMH.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...-appear-older-than-the-universe/#219e24713c44
>>>snip
...If you understand how stars work, you can observe the physical properties of one of them and extrapolate its age, and know when it had to have been born. Stars undergo a lot of changes as they age: their radius, luminosity, and temperature all evolve as they burn through their fuel. But a star's lifespan, in general, is dependent on only two properties that it's born with: its mass and its metallicity, which is the amount of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium present within. The oldest stars we've found in the Universe are nearly pristine, where almost 100% of what makes them up is the hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. They come in at over 13 billion years old, with the oldest at 14.5 billion. And this is a big problem, because the Universe itself is only 13.8 billion years old...
< >
...In the end, that's the greatest situation any curious individual can hope to find themselves in. What seems like an impossibility might prove to be something even more valuable: a chance to push our knowledge of how the Universe works into hitherto unknown frontiers.
(article continues)
<<<snip
SMH.
