Found! The Universe's OLDEST Star (Almost) Next Door

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]There is a star in our galaxy that once appeared older than the universe itself.

[00:00:05]>> [music] >> The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. But HD140283, [music] nicknamed the Methuselah star, was measured at around 14.5 [music] billion years old. That sounds impossible. A star cannot be older than the universe that [music] made it.

[00:00:24]But the key detail is uncertainty.

[00:00:27]The measurement came with an error margin of about >> [music] >> 800 million years, meaning the star may actually be slightly younger than the universe.

[00:00:36]Still, that [music] does not make it ordinary.

[00:00:38]HD140283 [music] sits only about 190 to 200 light-years away, >> [music] >> and it likely formed extremely soon after the Big Bang from material enriched by the first generations of stars. [music] So, the mystery is not that it breaks time.

[00:00:56]It is that it may be one of the oldest surviving stars [music] close to Earth.

[00:01:00]A fossil from the dawn of the universe hiding almost next door.