Lucy, looks like the Big Bangers have some ‘splaining
to do! The ages of the oldest stars in the Milky Way are supposed to be about 13.2
Ga (billion years), about 600 million years younger than the “age
of the universe” calculated from Big Bang
Theory. Unfortunately, star HD 140283, only 190 million light years away,
dubbed “Methuselah,” seems to be between 14 and 15 Ga. And within that range,
astronomers have difficulty getting an age much below 14.5
Ga. There is only a slight chance that the poor precision of the estimate (+0.8
Ga) still might allow it to fit the theory:
No doubt, the theoreticians will make some adjustments.
After all, the universe just keeps on getting older. Why, just the other day it
was 13.7 Ga—before they recently changed it to 13.8 Ga. Gosh, looks like I need
to make some revisions for the second editions of a few books…