Our Sun which sits in the center of our Solar System is believed to be just over 4.6 billion years old. Although that seems unfathomably old to a human, for a star, it’s actually not all that impressive.

A new survey has found that one particular star here in our own Milky Way galaxy is much older than anyone thought. This incredibly old star is called 2MASS J18082002–5104378 B and astronomers now believe it to be a whopping 13.5 billion years old.

This discovery means more stars with very low mass and very low metal content are most likely out there—maybe even some of the universe's very first stars.

Researchers were able to determine how old this Star is due to its incredibly low mass and metal content. Researchers think that newer stars tend to be very high in metallicity, but the Old Star’s metal content is extremely low. It’s also tiny, weighing in at only around 1/10th of the mass of our own Sun.

Moreover, it’s already been almost nine months since SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket, deploying a test payload into a Sun-centric orbit. Currently, the only passenger onboard, Tesla’s Roadster, officially made its way past Mars, which marks another milestone for the private spaceflight leader.

This past weekend, SpaceX announced that Starman has made it past Mars’ orbit, which was one of the more ambitious goals for the test launch. The Tesla Roadster and its “driver” are still zooming through space, but it won’t go much further before looping back around towards the Sun again and repeating its trip for an undetermined amount of time.

In other news, for some time now experts believe there is a supermassive black hole situated at the center of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*. Currently, scientists have found more evidence about the black hole which they released in an announcement on October 31.

The ESO released a video which portrays a stunning visualization of zooming into the black hole and seeing the swirling pattern of the flares that surround it.

This marks the first time that material has been so carefully observed to the event horizon of a black hole. The event horizon is an area around a black hole where nothing can escape — not matter or even light. 

And in great news, according to a new United Nations report, Earth’s ozone layer is finally repairing itself from damage that was a result of aerosol sprays and coolants. 

Since the late 1970s, the ozone layer had been thinning. Fortunately, scientists sounded the alarm, and ozone-depleting chemicals were phased out globally.

Thus, the upper ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere should be entirely healed by the 2030s, and the gaping Antarctic ozone hole should be fixed sometime by the 2060s, as per a scientific assessment unveiled Monday at a conference in Quito, Ecuador. The Southern Hemisphere is taking a bit longer, and its ozone layer should be repaired by mid-century.

Are you excited about the Ozone layer repairing itself? Do you think this could help address other aspects of climate change? 

Let us know in the comments below!