Listening to the Inner Lives of Stars

Marc Pinsonneault

Ohio State University

Numerous planets have been discovered by space missions such as Kepler and CoRoT. These satellites monitor the brightness of stars and search for periodic dips in their brightness as the planets pass in front of the stars and block a portion of the light. The detailed information on stellar variability from these exquisite movies has revealed regular changes in brightness in cool stars, including both sun‐like stars and their bloated red giant descendants. These oscillations, and their numerous overtones, are the surface manifestation of sound and water waves trapped inside the stars. Their frequencies provide a window into the otherwise hidden properties of their deep interiors, and the consequences for our understanding of stars and the formation of our galaxy are profound. In this talk I will describe how we measure solar and stellar oscillations, what we have already learned about stellar physics from them, and how this new tool will transform our knowledge of the Galaxy.