Determining the age of stars with sound waves

One of the long-standing difficulties in astrophysics has been a way to accurately determine the age of a star. Brand new stars are obvious from their location in or near “star nurseries” of interstellar gas and dust, and “adult” stars can be roughly characterized through various methods, including a calculation based on their mass and luminosity. Unfortunately, these methods are approximations at best. Researchers at KU Leuven’s Institute for Astronomy have now discovered a way to distinguish young stars from older ones by measuring the acoustic waves that they emit using ultrasound technology.

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“The scientists obtained their data using the Canadian MOST satellite, the European CoRoT satellite, and from Earth-based facilities including the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.”

Nice. Did you you know that “MOST” stands for “My Own Space Telescope”?

Haha.