The Big Bang and the age of the universe have plenty of evidence behind them, from the temperature of the cosmic microwave background to the measured expansion of the universe. Through a lot of work over the last century, we now believe the universe to be around 13.8 billion years old. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

But it would not take much to refute this idea. If we were to find a star that is definitively older than this, it would show that the universe was around before 13.8 billion years ago. Enter star HD 140283, looking suspiciously non-metallic.

HD 140283, better known as the Methuselah star, is around 200 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Libra. It is known to be a high-velocity, sub-giant st

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