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    Discovery Measures ‘Heartbeats’ of Distant Galaxy’s Stars

    November 17, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The monstrous elliptical galaxy M87, located 53 million light-years from Earth is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies. Astronomers have measured the 'heartbeats' of stars within M87 and used that data to determine the galaxy's age in a new way. This photograph was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team

    The monstrous elliptical galaxy M87, located 53 million light-years from Earth is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies. Astronomers have measured the ‘heartbeats’ of stars within M87 and used that data to determine the galaxy’s age in a new way. This photograph was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team

    In many ways stars are like living beings. They’re born; they live; they die. And they even have a heartbeat. Using a novel technique, astronomers have detected thousands of stellar ‘pulses’ in the galaxy Messier 87 (M87). Their measurements offer a new way of determining a galaxy’s age.

    We tend to think of stars as stable and unchanging...

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