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Astrophysics

Twinkling stars

Nature volume 500, pages 405–406 (2013)Cite this article

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A correlation between stellar brightness variations and the gravitational acceleration at a star's surface has been observed that allows this acceleration to be measured with a precision of better than 25%. See Letter p.427

“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” Given the wording of this old nursery rhyme, it is highly satisfying that Bastien et al.1 (page 427 of this issue) find that a star's twinkle may hold the key to determining its properties. The authors used data from NASA's Kepler space mission to show that accurate measurements of variations in a star's light reveal information about the acceleration of gravity at the star's surface. This result is significant for the characterization of stars, and in particular for the determination of radii of stars hosting planetary systems.

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Figure 1: Stellar variability.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard is in the Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.,

    Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard

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  1. Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard
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Correspondence to Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard.

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Christensen-Dalsgaard, J. Twinkling stars. Nature 500, 405–406 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500405a

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