There is a class of stars that make sounds across the galaxy. They have just been unraveled. Scientists used data collected by NASA’s TESS space telescope, and they were able to find a rhythm in the pulsations of a young star. These stars are called delta Scuti variable stars. They rotate so fast that they flatten a bit. When they do flatten, the pattern of their pulsation scuffle, and they produce chaos entirely. From the chaos, scientists were able to find an order. They found regular, high-frequency pulsation modes in about 60 delta Scuti stars. They are between 1.5 and 2.5 times the mass of the Sun.
Tim Bedding, from the University of Sydney in Australia, stated: “Delta Scuti stars clearly pulsate in interesting ways, but the patterns of those pulsations have so far defied understanding. To use a musical analogy, many stars pulsate along with simple chords, but delta Scuti stars are complex, with notes that seem to be jumbled. TESS has shown us that’s not true for all of them.”
The stellar pulsations are normal
These stellar pulsations are really not that unusual. Many of the stars have rhythmic patterns. The acoustic waves that bounce around inside the star cause these rhythmic patterns. Scientists believe the magnetic field of the star creates all of these waves. They also think that they make the star expand and contract for a bit, just like a heartbeat does.
Think about it this way: just as earthquakes put Earth to the test, the oscillations of the stars can show what is going on with them. This is how we can learn more about properties like their age, their temperature, or their composition. We are talking about a field that’s called asteroseismology. In order to gather data, scientists need to stare at the stars for quite the time simply. This is why they built TESS, which detects the light variations in these stars.
