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Animation of Sound Waves Trapped Inside a Star
Sound Waves Trapped Inside a Star
04/07/2011

In addition to its search for extrasolar planets, the NASA Kepler Mission is studying stars like our own Sun through observations of gentle oscillations of the stars, the field of asteroseismology. These oscillations are the visible manifestation of sound waves trapped in the stellar interiors. The movie shows sound waves trapped in the interior of one such star, with an orbiting planet in the foreground. Kepler has observed oscillations in more than 500 solar-type stars, and the background stars represent this ensemble. The images are stills extracted from the movie. Animation Credit: . See also Notas de prensa: .

Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz, Instituto de Aastrofisica de Canarias (MultiMedia Service)

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