10 Billion-Year-Old Stars from the Outskirts of the Universe Approach Earth

26th August 2024

1 minute read

10 Billion-Year-Old Stars from the Outskirts of the Universe Approach Earth

Imagine the Milky Way galaxy, to which Earth belongs, as a bustling city where most activity takes place in the central neighborhoods where people live and work.

Now, imagine two elderly travelers who spent most of their lives in the quiet, distant suburbs, suddenly making a rare visit to the crowded city center. These travelers are, in fact, a pair of ancient stars, approximately 10 billion years old, belonging to the outer edges of the Milky Way.

Researchers from the UK, Spain, and China, including a team from the University of Hertfordshire, were studying stars near Earth when they discovered this unusual pair: a white dwarf and an ultra-cool subdwarf.

The researchers, in a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, stated that these two stars, bound together by gravity, usually roam the distant outskirts of the galaxy but have now ventured into our cosmic neighborhood near Earth.

The white dwarf, resembling a cooled ember of a once fiery star, and the ultra-cool subdwarf, lacking many heavy elements, tell the story of the early days of our galaxy. By studying them, scientists hope to gain more insight into how the Milky Way formed and what it was like in its youth.

A report published by the University of Hertfordshire noted that “this discovery, confirmed by telescopes around the world, provides a rare glimpse into our galaxy’s distant past and raises new questions about how these stars ended up on such an unusual path through the Milky Way.”