NBIA Colloquium: Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard

Speaker: Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard (Stellar Astrophysics Center, Aarhus University)

Title: Probing red giant stars with the Kepler mission

Abstract: The frequencies of oscillations observed on a stellar surface carry information about the properties of the stellar interior. Asteroseismology, i.e., the unraveling of this information, has made a huge leap thanks to the photometric observations obtained with NASA' Kepler mission, launched in 2009 to search for planets around other stars. In my talk I focus on the study of red-giant stars, showing a broad range of oscillations, probing both the outer parts and the deep core of the stars. Amongst other remarkable results, this has allowed distinguishing stars according to their nuclear energy source and provided detailed information about the properties of internal rotation and magnetic fields in these late stages of stellar evolution.