Who would have ever dared to imagine that astronomers will find a planet that’s almost as old as the Universe itself? The Big Bang event triggered the birth of our Universe roughly 13.7 billion years ago, according to most astronomers.
According to a new article from The Daily Galaxy, researchers gathered information about an exoplanet located in the constellation Scorpius, about 5,600 light-years away from us. It’s orbiting a white dwarf star, and it’s considered the oldest planet in the galaxy.
The newfound planet is about 13 billion years old
At the staggering age of 13 billion years old, the newfound planet is almost three times as old as Earth, which is “only” 4.5 billion years old. Astrophysicist Harvey Richer revealed the details about the discovery, as well as the fact that the Hubble Space Telescope helped the astronomers achieve their outstanding discovery.
Could we consider ever moving to the newfound planet? Well, check out what Richer had to say for The Daily Galaxy:
There was absolutely no discussion on habitability of the planet, in fact it is almost certain that it isn’t habitable,
The ancient M4 cluster it resides in is poor in metals needed for life. The planet is more like Jupiter than the Earth, with no solid surface, and it might have survived a supernova explosion (the neutron star in the system was likely the end product of this explosion).
Either way, moving to another planet is very complicated at this point, as it can only be a scenario for the far future. Scientists are struggling even to find out how humanity can engage in a simple trip to Mars, meaning the closest planet to us.
Earth is still pretty much habitable, despite its flaws, which means that we should all do our best to take care of it.
