Dec 19, 2022
Astronomers discover irregularities in the cores of red giants
Posted by Dan Breeden in category: cosmology
Red giants are dying stars, in advanced stages of stellar evolution, which have depleted the hydrogen in their cores. In a study published today in Nature Communications, a team of astronomers mainly from Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA), have found new evidence that red giant stars experience “glitches”—sharp structural variations—in their inner core.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to look directly inside a star. However, a technique dubbed asteroseismology, which measures oscillations similar to “earthquakes” in stars, can provide indirect glimpses of stellar interiors. The “glitches” can affect these oscillations, or the frequencies and paths of gravity and sound waves traveling through the stellar interior.
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