Deep inside stars, fusion reactions combine hydrogen atoms to form helium and release a burst of energy. That energy produces heat, and the heat rises toward the outside of the star, triggering waves along the way that can roll for hundreds of thousands of years.
Scientists have blamed these waves for an odd flickering seen in the light of very massive, very hot stars. They have good reason: By compressing or decompressing plasma on the surface of the star, these convection waves should briefly interfere with how the star appears. But a new study concludes that the twinkling would be too minor to account for the pulsing “red noise.”
The effect is even too minor to detect using currently available telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope. (Star flickering visible with the naked eye is caused by interference from Earth’s atmosphere.) There may still be special cases, however, where the ...
