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    asteroseismology tagged posts

    Researchers Measure the Inner Structure of Distant Suns from their Pulsations

    January 3, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    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

    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...

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    Pleiades Star Cluster: Surprising variability

    August 27, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft shows members of the Pleiades star cluster taken during Campaign 4 of the K2 Mission. The cluster stretches across two of the 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that make up Kepler’s 95 megapixel camera. The brightest stars in the cluster – Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, and Pleione – are visible to the naked eye. Kepler was not designed to look at stars this bright; they cause the camera to saturate, leading to long spikes and other artefacts in the image. Despite this serious image degradation, the new technique has allowed astronomers to carefully measure changes in brightness of these stars as the Kepler telescope observed them for almost three months. Credit: NASA / Aarhus University / T. White

    This image from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft shows members of the Pleiades star cluster taken during Campaign 4 of the K2 Mission. The cluster stretches across two of the 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that make up Kepler’s 95 megapixel camera. The brightest stars in the cluster – Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, and Pleione – are visible to the naked eye. Kepler was not designed to look at stars this bright; they cause the camera to saturate, leading to long spikes and other artefacts in the image. Despite this serious image degradation, the new technique has allowed astronomers to carefully measure changes in brightness of these stars as the Kepler telescope observed them for almost three months. Credit: NASA / Aarhus University / T. White

    The Seven Sisters, as they ...

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    The Rotation Axes of Stars tell us about how they were Born

    March 18, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Numerical simulation of the fragmentation of a cluster of stars up to the formation of stars (left) with a zoom on the most central part of the cluster (right). The inclination axes of the masses similar to those observed by the Kepler satellite (in cluster NGC 6791) align in this simulation when the kinetic energy of the original cloud is comparable to the ambient turbulent energy. © E.Corsaro & Y.-N Lee

    Numerical simulation of the fragmentation of a cluster of stars up to the formation of stars (left) with a zoom on the most central part of the cluster (right). The inclination axes of the masses similar to those observed by the Kepler satellite (in cluster NGC 6791) align in this simulation when the kinetic energy of the original cloud is comparable to the ambient turbulent energy. © E.Corsaro & Y.-N Lee

    Using asteroseismology, an international team including CEA, CNRS and Université Grenoble-Alpes discovered a surprising alignment of the rotation axes of stars in open clusters, shedding light on the conditions in which stars are formed in our galaxy...

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    Starquakes Reveal Surprises about Birth of Stars in our Galaxy

    March 15, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The spins of about 70% of the red giant stars observed in the clusters were strongly aligned in a study by researchers including Dr Dennis Stello.

    The spins of about 70% of the red giant stars observed in the clusters were strongly aligned in a study by researchers including Dr Dennis Stello.

    A study of the internal sound waves created by starquakes, which make stars ring like a bell, has provided unprecedented insights into conditions in the turbulent gas clouds where stars were born 8 billion years ago. Astronomers used this asteroseismology approach to work out the orientation of the angle of spin of 48 stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The spins of about 70% of the red giant stars observed in the clusters were strongly aligned in a study by researchers including Dr Dennis Stello...

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