asteroseismology tagged posts

Scientists have succeeded in dating some of the oldest stars in the galaxy with unprecedented precision by combining data from the stars’ oscillations with information about their chemical composition.

The team, led by researchers at the University of Birmingham, surveyed around 100 red giant stars, and were able to determine that some of these were originally part of a satellite galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus, which collided with the Milky Way early in its history.

The results, published in Nature Astronomy, revealed that the group of stars surveyed all have similar ages, or are slightly younger than the majority of the stars known to have started their lives within the Milky Way...

New research reveals hidden processes at work in the hearts of large stars. Astronomers commonly refer to massive stars as the chemical factories of the Universe. They generally end their lives in spectacular supernovae, events that forge many of the elements on the periodic table. How elemental nuclei mix within these enormous stars has a major impact on our understanding of their evolution prior to their explosion. It also represents the largest uncertainty for scientists studying their structure and evolution.

A team of astronomers led by May Gade Pedersen, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institut...

Stars spin faster than expected as they age according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Birmingham which uses asteroseismology to shed new light on this emerging theory.

All stars, like the Sun, are born spinning. As they grow older, their spin slows down due to magnetic winds in a process called ‘magnetic braking’. Research published in 2016 by scientists at Carnegie Observatories delivered the first hints that stars at a similar stage of life as the Sun were spinning faster than magnetic braking theories predicted. The results from this study were based on a method in which scientists pinpoint dark spots on the surface of stars and track them as they move with the stars’ spin...

A glimpse into the heart: Artist’s impression of the interior of the star, which was studied through its surface oscillations. Credit: Earl Bellinger / ESA

At first glance, it would seem to be impossible to look inside a star. An international team has, for the first time, determined the deep inner structure of two stars based on their oscillations. Our sun, and most other stars, experience pulsations that spread through the star’s interior as sound waves. The frequencies of these waves are imprinted on the light of the star, and can be later seen by astronomers here on Earth.

Astronomers determine the properties of stars from their pulsations—a field called asteroseismology...