A team of astronomers at the Australian National University recently discovered the oldest known star in the Universe using the SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory (pictured above). The star is hypothesized to have formed shortly after the Big Bang and is about 6,000 ly away from the Earth. By studying this star, astronomers hope to learn about the chemistry of the first stars and early Universe.
Unlike younger stars, it seems like this old star has a different chemical composition, particularly containing a smaller amount of iron. What I found really cool was that the SkyMapper telescope was able to use this fact to find the star, since the telescope can distinguish a star's iron level from its color!
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