What is the estimated age of the three ancient stars recently discovered orbiting toward the constellation Cetus?
Answer
Over 12 billion years old.
The discovery made by researchers studying Gaia data confirmed the existence of three stars that rank among the oldest ever identified in the universe. These specific stellar relics are estimated to be over 12 billion years old. Given that the current estimate for the age of the entire universe is approximately 13.8 billion years, this means these stars began radiating light when the cosmos was significantly less than a billion years into its existence, placing them firmly in the epoch immediately following the Big Bang.
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