{"id":215226,"date":"2025-05-06T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=215226"},"modified":"2025-05-07T08:38:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:38:30","slug":"maunakea-telescope-tunes-into-music-of-nearby-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/06\/maunakea-telescope-tunes-into-music-of-nearby-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Maunakea telescope tunes into music of nearby star, unveils surprising discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_13930\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KpEaDt7Ohlw?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"UH astronomers tune into music of nearby star Excerpt\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p><small>Illustration of <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134. Sound waves within the stellar interior were used to measure its age, size and characterize the planets orbiting the star. (Credit: Open<abbr>AI<\/abbr>, based on original artwork from Gabriel Perez Diaz\/Instituto de Astrof\u00edsica de Canarias)<\/small><\/p>\n<p>A team of astronomers led by Yaguang Li, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Institute for Astronomy (<abbr>IfA<\/abbr>), has used a Maunakea telescope to listen to the music of a nearby star, uncovering surprises that shake our understanding of how stars work.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_215230\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-215230\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-ifa-keck-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"telescope\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-215230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-ifa-keck-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-ifa-keck-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/manoa-ifa-keck.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-215230\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">W.M. Keck Observatory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The study used a new cutting-edge instrument at the W.M. Keck Observatory called the Keck Planet Finder (<abbr>KPF<\/abbr>)\u2014which detected oscillations rippling through star <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134. The team\u2019s findings, published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/adc737\"><em>Astrophysical Journal<\/em><\/a>, open a new window into the interiors of stars that were once thought too quiet to probe.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The vibrations of a star are like its unique song,&rdquo; said Li. &ldquo;By listening to those oscillations, we can precisely determine how massive a star is, how large it is, and how old it is.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>A stellar symphony<\/h2>\n<p>Although we cannot directly hear them with our own ears, stars are not silent. Like musical instruments, stars resonate with natural frequencies that astronomers can &ldquo;hear&rdquo; with the right tools. This field of research, known as asteroseismology, allows scientists to use these frequencies to probe the interiors of stars.<\/p>\n<p>Stellar oscillations have mostly been detected in hotter stars using space telescopes like Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or <abbr>TESS<\/abbr>. However <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134\u2019s subtle &ldquo;stellar song&rdquo; couldn\u2019t be captured this way due to its cooler, orange-hued nature.<\/p>\n<p>Through four consecutive nights, the team used <abbr>KPF<\/abbr> to collect more than 2,000 ultra-precise velocity measurements of the star&#8212;enabling them to catch the star\u2019s vibrations in action.<\/p>\n<h2>10-billion-year-old time capsule<\/h2>\n<p>Using the oscillations detected in <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134, the team determined the star\u2019s age to be 10.2 billion years, more than twice the age of our Sun. This makes it one of the oldest main-sequence stars with an age determined using asteroseismology.<\/p>\n<p>This new measurement offers key insights into stellar aging. For stars like <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134, spin-down appears to stall later in life. The asteroseismic age helps refine models and improve age estimates for other stars.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is like finding a long-lost tuning fork for stellar clocks,&rdquo; said Yaguang Li. &ldquo;It gives us a reference point to calibrate how stars spin down over billions of years.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>A puzzle<\/h2>\n<p>Surprisingly, the team also discovered that <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134 appears smaller than expected. While other measurements using multiple telescopes indicated that the star\u2019s radius is about 4&#37; larger, the asteroseismic measurement suggests it\u2019s more compact.<\/p>\n<p>The findings challenge current models, especially for cooler stars like <abbr>HD<\/abbr> 219134, which hosts at least five planets\u2014including two super-Earth-sized, rocky worlds with possible Earth-like compositions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When we find life on another planet, we will want to know how old that life is,&rdquo; said <abbr>IfA<\/abbr> Astronomer Daniel Huber, a co-author on the study.<\/p>\n<p>Instruments like <abbr>KPF<\/abbr> will enable age measurements for other stars which are slated to become the focus for searching for life on other planets using future <abbr title=\"National Aeronautics and Space Administration\">NASA<\/abbr> missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>IfA<\/abbr> astronomers used a Maunakea telescope to detect vibrations in the star\u2014bringing new insight into stellar aging and evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[34,35,1467,1363,9,56],"class_list":["post-215226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-astronomy","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215226"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215437,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215226\/revisions\/215437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}