An artist’s rendering provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics of shows the Milky Way’s structure.   | Photo Credit: AP

Astronomers have discovered some of the oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy by determining their locations and velocities. Just like humans, stars have a life span: birth, youth, adulthood, senior and death.

Scientists at Georgia State University in the U.S. focussed on old or “senior citizen” stars, also known as cool subdwarfs, that are much older and cooler in temperature than the Sun.

In a study, astronomers conducted a census of our solar neighbourhood to identify how many young, adult and old stars are present. They targeted stars out to a distance of 200 light years, which is relatively nearby considering the galaxy is more than 1,00,000 light years across.

A light year is how far light can travel in one year.

This is farther than the traditional horizon for the region of space that is referred to as “the solar neighbourhood,” which is about 80 light years in radius.

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