COSMOS MAGAZINE
Astronomers have managed to peer inside a nearby star by “listening” to its resonance.
What they discovered changes astronomers’ understanding of how stars work.
Artist’s concept of the HD219134 system with resonant waves inside it. Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz/Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias/W. M. Keck Observatory.
Stars don’t make a noise that you can hear, but they do have natural resonant frequencies that can be detected using the right tools.
Similar technology has helped geologists on Earth understand the layers and what is happening in the interior of our planet.
Using the cutting-edge Keck Planet Finder at Hawai‘i’s Keck Observatory, astronomers detected subtle star-quakes in HD 219134, a cool orange star just 21 light-years from our solar system.
Measurements from the Keck Planet Finder helped the astronomers determine that HD 219134 is 10.2 billion years old – more than twice the age of our Sun. It is one of the oldest stars aged using astroseismology.
The technique, called astroseismology, is now rewriting how scientists study smaller, older stars.
It hints that cooler stars may be built differently than previously thought, with big implications for understanding their planets too.
Artist’s concept of the HD219134 system with resonant waves inside it. Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz/Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias/W. M. Keck Observatory.