Stars are known to give out rhythmic pulses similar to that of a human heartbeat. Up till a recent NASA’s TESS mission the pulses that originated within the stars had jumbled up frequencies and they did not have specific patter to them. this had the scientists scratch their heads for a very long time.

From the observations made by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a study, “Very regular high-frequency pulsation modes in young intermediate-mass stars”, was published on Wednesday.

the stars that had been under the observation of the scientists are Delta Scuti stars and usually, they happen to be more than twice the mass of the sun. The satellite took a test data of almost 60 Delta Scuti stars that it was surrounded by.

According to Professor Bedding, who happens to be one of the authors of the study,

”the incredibly precise data from NASA’s TESS mission have allowed us to cut through the noise. Now we can detect structure, more like listening to nice chords being played on the piano.”

By measuring the pulsations of the stars, the field of Asteroseismology has opened up new dimensions to study related to having a know-how about the inner workings of a star. It was known that the sound pulses that were produced within the test stars either caused a region of them to expand or to contract.

References

Bedding, T.R., Murphy, S.J., Hey, D.R. et al. Very regular high-frequency pulsation modes in young intermediate-mass stars. Nature 581, 147–151 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2226-8