The Turbulent Life of Stars
The stars are boiling! The reason is the energy generated in the centre of the star that wants to escape. If this does not happen quickly enough, the star starts to ‘boil’ in the outer layers causing vibrations that result in light variations, like in the Sun. Such oscillations have now been discovered by Victoria Antoci and collaborators, including astronomer Peter De Cat of the Observatory, using the NASA spacecraft Kepler, but in a star much hotter than the Sun.
The scientists publish this in a recent issue of “Nature”.
The results confirm the models made by astronomers specialised in the structure and evolution of this kind of stars.