Q&A: General Astronomy and Space Science

Q:
What is the life cycle of a star and how old can one get to be?

A:
Please see our Field Guide to X-Ray Astronomy on Stellar Evolution at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/stellar_evolution.html

An estimate for the oldest stars in the Universe is 14 billion years, but this could be off by a few billion years. A useful website on cosmic time and the age of the oldest stars may be found here:
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/56/ancient2.html