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Monash Astro Seminars
3pm, Tuesday 10 November 2009; Maths, Rm. 345
Tim Bedding
"Asteroseismology: using oscillations to probe stellar interiors"
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Measuring stellar oscillations is a beautiful physics experiment: a star is a gaseous sphere and will oscillate in many different modes when suitably excited. The frequencies of these oscillations depend on the sound speed inside the star, which in turn depends on density, temperature, gas motion and other properties of the stellar interior. This analysis, called asteroseismology, yields information such as composition, age, mixing and internal rotation that cannot be obtained in any other way and is completely analogous to the seismological study of the interior of the Earth.\\ Asteroseismology is a new and rapidly developing field and the past few years have brought some exciting results. Progress is thanks to the wonderfully precise Doppler measurements now possible with large telescopes such as the AAT and the VLT, and to observations from space missions such as NASA's Kepler Mission. The dream of applying asteroseismology to solar-like stars has finally become a reality.
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Please email all enquiries to daniel.price@sci.monash.edu.au or rosemary.mardling@sci.monash.edu.au
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