Aug 28, 2013 02:31 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Astronomers have found a twin to Earth's sun, estimated almost four billions years older, and it gives researchers a look way into the future of the sun, Space.com reported.

The star, named HIP 102152, is an estimated 8.2 billion years old and shares characteristics similar to the Earth's sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. It is the oldest solar twin to our sun that scientists found to date.

HIP 102152 is about 250 light years away from Earth in the Capricornus (Sea Goat) constellation. It was spotted using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

"For decades, astronomers have been searching for solar twins in order to know our own life-giving sun better," research leader Jorge Melendez, of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, said in a statement. "But very few have been found since the first one was discovered in 1997. We have now obtained superb-quality spectra from the VLT and can scrutinize solar twins with extreme precision, to answer the question of whether the sun is special."

The Big Bang theory suggests lithium, hydrogen and helium were created during the explosion that created the universe. The sun only has one percent of the lithium contained in the gas cloud that birthed it, which has perplexed scientists. But HIP 102152 has even less lithium, allowing scientists to better correlate the age of a star to its contents of lithium.

"We can now be certain that stars somehow destroy their lithium as they age and that the Sun's lithium content appears to be normal for its age," lead author of the study to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, TalaWanda Monroe, of USP, said in a statement.

Further similarities between HIP and our sun lead scientists to believe the older twin could support life as well. Both are deficient in certain elements commonly found on Earth, leading researchers to believe rocky, terrestrial planets like Earth orbit sun's older twin.

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