"Naturalmente" não que pode existir uma estrela mais velha que o próprio Universo. Porém, estimativas indicam que a estrela HD 140283 (ou estrela de Matusalém) é uma autêntica e remota relíquia do passado. HD 140283 é uma estrela subgigante pobre em metais que está a cerca de 200 anos-luz de distância da Terra, na constelação de Libra, perto da fronteira com Ophiuchus. A idade estima para essa estrela é de 14,46 ± 0,8 bilhões de anos e a do Universo é de 13.799 ± 0,021 bilhões. Ou seja, essa estrela, pela margem de erro, poderia ser até mais velha que o Universo. Acho que a estimativa de vida dessa estrela precisa ser mais refinada ainda.
#curiosidade #astronomia #hd140283 #universo #fisica
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HD 140283: A STAR IN THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD THAT FORMED SHORTLY AFTER THE BIG BANG*
Howard E. Bond6,1,2, Edmund P. Nelan1, Don A. VandenBerg3, Gail H. Schaefer4, and Dianne Harmer5
Published 2013 February 13 • © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
, , Citation Howard E. Bond et al 2013 ApJL 765 L12DOI 10.1088/2041-8205/765/1/L12
ABSTRACT
HD 140283 is an extremely metal-deficient and high-velocity subgiant in the solar neighborhood, having a location in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram where absolute magnitude is most sensitive to stellar age. Because it is bright, nearby, unreddened, and has a well-determined chemical composition, this star avoids most of the issues involved in age determinations for globular clusters. Using the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have measured a trigonometric parallax of 17.15 ± 0.14 mas for HD 140283, with an error one-fifth of that determined by the Hipparcos mission. Employing modern theoretical isochrones, which include effects of helium diffusion, revised nuclear reaction rates, and enhanced oxygen abundance, we use the precise distance to infer an age of 14.46 ± 0.31 Gyr. The quoted error includes only the uncertainty in the parallax, and is for adopted surface oxygen and iron abundances of [O/H] = -1.67 and [Fe/H] = -2.40. Uncertainties in the stellar parameters and chemical composition, especially the oxygen content, now contribute more to the error budget for the age of HD 140283 than does its distance, increasing the total uncertainty to about ±0.8 Gyr. Within the errors, the age of HD 140283 does not conflict with the age of the Universe, 13.77 ± 0.06 Gyr, based on the microwave background and Hubble constant, but it must have formed soon after the big bang.
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