According to the Big-Bang hypothesis, the universe originated 13.7 billion years ago from the cataclysmic explosion of matter at extremely high density and temperature. Discrepancy arises when the European-led research team release all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background during the Planck cosmology investigation that comes to the conclusion that the universe is 13.798±0.037 billion years old, which is slightly older than we thought.
Eventually, this discrepancy maybe resolved as Australian astronomers claim to have discovered the oldest known star in the universe which is about 13.6 billion years old.
The star, designated SMSS J031300.36−670839.3, is believed to have formed some hundred million years after the Big-Bang. The star has a unique chemical fingerprint showing it contained almost no iron.
Stefan Keller, lead researcher at the Australian National University Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics says the stars that formed immediately after the big bang contained primordial mix of hydrogen, helium and a small amount of lithium. They are hundreds of times the mass of the Sun.
This newly discovered stars was formed during the event of a primordial star formation. It was believed that primordial stars died in an extremely violent explosion that contaminated the major portions of the space with iron, but the ancient star did with lighter elements such as carbon and magnesium and absolutely no sign of iron.
The star is situated in the outskirts of the Milky Way at a distance of around 6000 lights years from Earth, and was discovered using the Australian National University’s SkyMapper telescope.
[Image Credit: Wikipedia]