This Study Of Hundreds Of Pulsing Stars That Brighten And Dim Periodically May Give Scientists More Insight Into The Size And Scale Of Our Universe

Over the course of 12 years, the VELOCE project has collected more than 18,000 high-precision measurements of the radial velocity of 258 cepheids.

This data has revealed surprising variations in the pulsations of the stars. In addition, the researchers discovered that several cepheids belonged to a binary system in which two stars orbit one another.

The findings indicate that these stars are more complicated than previously thought. Some of the processes that may be occurring within the stars include interactions between different layers of a star or non-radial pulsation signals that could allow scientists to examine the structure of cepheids through asteroseismology.

Overall, the new data will help astronomers come to a clearer understanding of pulsating cepheids and whether the changes in their brightness are due to their individual structures or interactions with each other.

Hopefully, others within the scientific community will be inspired to study such systems further.

The latest study was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.