The researchers have found a new way to measure the strength of gravity on the surface of the star. For distant stars, in systems that have planets, this information is critical in determining the potential habitability discovered planet.
This new study headed by Thomas Kallinger of the University of Vienna, Austria, as part of the research group entered professor at the University of British Columbia, SC, Jamie Matthews, as well as astronomers from Germany, France and Australia.
This new method allows scientists to measure gravity on the star’s surface with an accuracy of about four per cent, and is intended for use in relation to such the stars are too far away or dim to them it was possible to apply the existing methods. Since gravity on the surface of a star depends on its mass and radius, this method will allow astronomers to measure the mass and size of distant stars. It can play a big role in the study of planets outside our solar system, many of which are so far away that even the basic properties of the stars around which turn this planet can not be measured with reasonable accuracy.
A team led by Thomas Kalingera from the University of Vienna used data from the Kepler space telescope, which is looking for other worlds like Earth, to demonstrate both the variation in the brightness of distant stars can be more accurately determined by the surface gravity.
The time frame of turbulence and vibration on the surface stars based on variations in its brightness, helps calculate the force of surface gravity, the researchers said.
Future space missions will be looking around distant stars of the planet, which can be oceans of water and possibly life.
Since the force of gravity on the surface of a star depends on its mass and radius, this method should also help astronomers to determine the mass and size of distant stars and planets revolving around them.
«If you do not know a star you do not know and the planet “- says Professor Matthews of the University of British Columbia in Canada.
« size exoplanets measured relative to the size of its parent star “.
« If you have found a planet around a star which, as you believe, like the sun, but really huge, you may mistakenly think that has found a liveable planet the size of Earth ».
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