Watch the pulsations of a Delta Scuti star! In this illustration, the star changes in brightness when internal sound waves at different frequencies cause parts of the star to expand and contract. In one pattern, the whole star expands and contracts, while in a second, opposite hemispheres swell and shrink out of sync. In reality, a single star exhibits many pulsation patterns that can tell astronomers about its age, composition and internal structure. The exact light variations astronomers observe also depend on how the star's spin axis angles toward us. Delta Scuti stars spin so rapidly that they flatten into ovals, which jumbles these signals and makes them harder to decode. Now, thanks to NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, astronomers are deciphering some of them.
Read more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-s-tess-enables-breakthrough-study-of-perplexing-stellar-pulsations
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer
Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland College Park): Lead Science Writer
Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Science Writer
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Animator
Tim Bedding (University of Sydney): Scientist
Simon Murphy (University of Sydney): Scientist
This video is public domain and may be downloaded from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13605
