Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

This wide-field view captures the solar twin HIP 102152 in the constellation of Capricornus (The Sea Goat). Located 250 light-years from Earth, HIP 102152 is more like the Sun than any other solar twin — apart from the fact that it is nearly four billion years older, giving us an unprecedented chance to study how the Sun will look when it ages. It is the oldest solar twin identified to date, and was studied by an international team using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, led by astronomers in Brazil.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1337c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License