This week we feature what at first sight appears to be a pretty uninspiring star field with no stars standing out as being anything special. However this rather bland image takes on a completely different perspective when you are informed that the unimpressive star in the centre of the field of view is in fact the Methuselah star!
HD 140283, the Methuselah star, is a metal-poor subgiant star lying about 200 light years away in the constellation Libra. Not particularly bright at apparent magnitude 7.5, its claim to fame is that it is estimated to be around 12 billion years old, making it one of the oldest stars known.
