Scientists have discovered that stars experience “earthquakes” similar to those that occur on Earth. Sometimes it's
These quakes have been detected around thousands of stars by the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope, led by scientists from the University of Cambridge.
Previously, Gaia has already recorded radial oscillations,which cause stars to periodically swell and contract while maintaining their spherical shape. But now the telescope has "seen" other vibrations, which astronomers have described as "similar to large-scale tsunamis." These non-radial fluctuations change the overall shape of the star and are harder to detect.
“Starquakes reveal a lot about stars, especially their inner workings. Gaia opens gold mine for 'astroseismology' massive stars,” the scientists noted.