Scientists have discovered an "impossible" star which appears to be older than the universe.

The mysterious star Methuselah appears to be between 14 and 15 billion years old - a bit of an issue considering the universe itself is known to have come into existence 13.8 billion years ago.

Oddly enough, Methuselah is even located inside our own galaxy - about 190 light years away.

And even after using new information about the star's distance from us, its brightness and its structure, scientists are unable to place an estimate of its age much below 14.5 billion years - still older than the universe.

Fortunately for the team from Pennsylvania State University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, there appears to be a margin of error of about 800 million years, or so - enough to just barely place the star below the age of everything else, if peace of mind is important to you.