Scientists have discovered that stars experience earthquakes similar to the earthquakes on our planet.
Officially known as non-radial oscillations, earthquakes are tsunami-like movements in the crust of stars that change the shape of the star with its powerful force.
They were discovered from data collected on nearly two billion stars in our galaxy by the Gaia Space Observatory, which was not originally built to detect these movements on the surface of stars.
“Gaia has previously found radial oscillations that cause stars to swell and shrink periodically, maintaining their spherical shape. But now Gaia has also detected other vibrations that are more like large-scale tsunamis.” , said the European Space Agency (ESA).
Image: ESA’s new Gaia data can show stellar metallicity with color, with redder stars richer in metals. Image: ESA
Earthquakes were detected in thousands of stars, along with vibrations in stars that according to current theories should not have any earthquakes.
“Earthquakes teach us a lot about stars, especially how they work internally. Gaia is opening a gold mine for ‘asterosismology’ of massive stars,” said Conny Aerts of KU Leuven in Belgium, a member of the college. Gaia collaboration.
Operated by ESA, Gaia orbits the Earth at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers, with two telescopes designed to create an accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
This “DNA map” is a multidimensional catalog of asteroids, planets, stars, and galaxies, and has uncovered multiple discoveries with consecutive publications.
Image: Gaia also shows interstellar dust throughout the Milky Way. Image: ESA
The data includes a range of information “including chemical compositions, stellar temperatures, colors, masses, ages, and the speed with which stars move toward or away from us,” according to ESA.
Dr Nicholas Walton, a scientist at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy who worked on the project, said: “This important publication of Gaia data not only allows astronomers to map distances and movements. of about two billion stars in our galaxy., but also provides detailed measurements of the physical and chemical composition of a large number of these objects for the first time.
“With this incredible database we can build a complete picture of the Milky Way and delve into its incredible history of formation, seeing direct evidence of both violent interactions of the past with other galaxies and internal star formation attacks. lar intense along his spiral arms.
“This new release of data creates a detailed bank of information, which basically works like a DNA map that allows us to understand the stellar population of our galaxy and track its past, present and future,” he said. add Dr. Walton.