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The vast majority of astronomers agree with the big bang - the theory that the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago in a blazing cataclysm. However, not everyone is in agreement with this idea. Some Big Bang skeptics claim that the Universe is about 6,000 years old, while others claim that the Universe is eternal. Despite their disagreement with each other, they both agree that the theory of the Big Bang is wrong, and one observation they point to is the existence of stars with an estimated age that is older than the Universe itself. If there were such a star, it would be the death knell of the big bang.
The “Methuselah Star”
HD 140283, more colorfully called the “Methuselah Star,” is most certainly old and is generally accepted to be one of the oldest known stars. A paper published in 2013 estimated its age to be 14.45 billion years old, with an uncertainty of ±0.8 billion years. This is older than the most precise estimate that we have for the age of the Universe, 13.797 ± 0.023 billion years.
When the star of Methuselah is not unique (which means that there are other stars that are equally old), it is the oldest star with relatively low uncertainty, and so it is regarded by those who do not believe the big bang as providing the most solid case against the theory.
A star is born
Astronomers believe that HD 140283 is old because the star has a very low “metallicity.” A star is bornAstronomers think that HD 140283 is old because the star has a very weak "metallic character."
When the cosmos began, the Universe consisted nearly entirely of hydrogen (75%) and helium (25%), with a tiny trace of heavier elements (~0.01%). (This reflects the mass content; Just including the atoms, hydrogen was at 92 percent and helium at 8 percent. ) it was also the elemental composition of the first stars, Maybe 100 million years since the Big Bang. These stars, which astronomers call the stars of population III, were much heavier and more luminous than the sun, and in their core, stellar fusion cooked up the first types of heavier elements. Population iii stars lived only a couple of million years before exploding into supernovae, which exploded their heavier elements into the cosmos.
Heavy elements blended with hydrogen and helium, forming the population ii stars, and the process is repeated again, with these supernovae later, adding even heavier elements to the cosmos. This has resulted in population i stars, which have a relatively high make-up of heavier elements. Our sunshine is an i star population.
Nevertheless, the star of Methuselah is a population star ii: a cosmic relic of the very birth of the universe. It contains considerably less oxygen and iron than, for instance, the sun. Astronomers use a mix of measurements of the star's brightness, the observed percentages of elements other than hydrogen and helium, and advanced stellar evolutionary models to determine the age of the star. And, as previously mentioned, in 2013, astronomers estimated that they were older than the universe. What's wrong with that? Does HD 140283 sound the demise of the Big Bang?
Will HD 140283 end the Big Bang?
No. On the one hand, further calculations of the age of the star suggest that it is younger. One estimate in 2015 suggests an age of 13.7 ± 0.7 billion years, while an estimate in 2021 suggests an even earlier age of 12 ± 0.5 billion years. The fact that individual scientists estimate such a range of ages means that the gap is a lot of noise for nothing.
While the seemingly problematic estimate for 2013 was 100% reliable, caution is required. More importantly, we must not only compare the point estimate of the age of the star with that of the universe (that is, 14.45 versus 13.797 billion years) Uncertainties must also be taken into consideration. The uncertainty for the age estimate for the methuselah star is 0.8 billion years old, the star's actual age ranges from 13.65 to 15.25 billion years. The age of the Mathusalem Star is uncertain at 0.8 billion years, the star's actual age ranges from 13.65 to 15.25 billion years.
While the 2013 estimate of the Methuselah Star’s age suggests that it could be older than the Universe, the fact that this estimate is also consistent with the star being younger than the Universe is why the scientific community does not find it to be a problem. This also means that there is a 15% probability that the real age of HD 140283 is below 13.65 billion years old. )
