• Question: What are star-quakes?

    Asked by Blobfish to Connor on 16 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by {^-^._.-.-}ALsHmeXi{-.-._.^-^}TGS.
    • Photo: Connor Macrae

      Connor Macrae answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Starquakes are just like Sunquakes – they will happen in a very similar way. Sunquakes are produced when energetic events like solar flares transfer energy into the suns surface. The Surface of the Sun is not solid like the earth, so this energy is absorbed and becomes sound waves that travel away from the impact. You then often see these sound waves as ripples on the Suns surface – think of it like dropping a pebble into a river! As we have seen them on the Sun, we expect them to occur on other stars, however they are so far away we can’t see them like we do on the Sun. Instead, we have to look for evidence in variations of the light from other stars.

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