Astronomers say a star in our galaxy is 13.2 billion years old, which makes it nearly as ancient as the universe itself.

The star, named HE 1523-0901, would have formed almost at the dawn of time, just a fraction after the birth of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.

An international group of astronomers, which includes researchers from the Australian National University and Swinburne University of Technology, publish the research in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) powerful Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to date the primitive star.

The telescope measured radioactive decay of the star's thorium and uranium over time.

As these heavy elements decay at a predictable rate (thorium's half-life is 14 billion years and uranium's is 4.5 billion years), astronomers can therefore calculate the star's age.