ASTRONOMY : EERIE 'SONG' OF TWINKLING STARS DRIVES UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR NUCLEAR CORES

Taking a musical approach helps scientists determine how much a star should shine

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Scientists have developed a new method to predict the brightness of a star's inherent twinkle. What's more, they've also managed to simulate how that twinkle might sound. And it seems that massive stars sing a strangely eerie song (hear an example for yourself on the BBC Science Focus website at bit.ly/Inherent Twinkle).

Unlike the visible twinkle we see from Earth, which is caused by a star's light being distorted as it passes through this planet's atmosphere, a star's inherent twinkle is caused by rippling waves of gas on its surface.

The gas waves originate in the nuclear reactions that take place in a star's core and move out towards the surface. As they move, the waves create turbulence and chaos in the gases around them, increasing or decreasing the star's shine to produce its inherent twinkle. This inherent twinkle is invisible, however - to the naked eye as well as the current generation of powerful ground-based telescopes.