size of it weigh , especially if you ’re a sensation . star radius and mass are a all-important tool to set up the age of a wiz , and also the possible habitableness of planets around it . One way to size up virtuoso is to search at how they shake , and now a singular system has confirm that the method is very accurate .
The system , called KIC 9246715 , has two red elephantine stars that have very similar people ( about 2.1 solar masses ) and radii ( about 8.3 solar radius ) . The duet form an eclipsing binary , meaning that from our point of view they regularly get in front of each other . The two wizard ' revolution is about 171 days .
Since they are so airless and freehanded , scientists know their size fairly well . Therefore , in a new study , published in theAstrophysical Journal , astronomers used the system to quiz a different method . They used asteroseismology to judge the r and batch of each wizard . Asteroseismology looks at the subtle oscillation of stars to lick out their properties .
Using information from Kepler , the planet - hunter telescope , they were able to forecast a mass and a radius consistent with the one hold by the traditional method , which usesKepler ’s third law . This result is very important . The traditional method can not be applied to single star but the oscillation method can .
These oscillations are often called starquakes and are return by upheaval in the deeper layer of stars . Asteroseismology has also been used to inquire the deeper layers and the magnetized fieldsinside red giants .
The team create a theoretical account based on the cycle we see in our Sun and looked at objects with alike patterns . Kepler has 18 eclipsing binary where this should apply and KIC 9246715 was the first one observed in detail .
amazingly , the system also seems to be quite weird : Only one of the two stars has oscillations . The squad thinks that the unattackable magnetised champaign of the other somehow dampens the starquakes . The researchers plan to calculate at the other 17 brace to understand if this is an strange feature or something comparatively plebeian .
