research about the sun
The Department of Astronomy will host 125 astronomers from the United States and 18 other countries at its largest conference in nearly three decades, to be held July 12-16.
The meeting, titled "Helio- and Asteroseismology: Towards a Golden Future," will focus on results from "sunquake" and "starquake" data obtained in the past two years. The event is being organized under the leadership of Sarbani Basu, associate professor of astronomy at Yale.
Helioseismology is the study of the sun by observing "sunquakes." The sun quakes, or oscillates, constantly and data from these quakes is giving scientists access to the interior of the sun.
Oscillations of the sun were first observed in the mid-1960s and were thought to be confined to its atmosphere. In the mid-1970s, its was revealed that the oscillations involve the entire sun, not just its atmosphere. Astronomers found that they could use data from the quakes to get high-precision measurements of the internal structure of the sun and of the dynamics of solar rotation. Currently, helioseismologists are trying to explain the 11-year solar magnetic cycle and the changes that occur in the sun through the cycle.
Scientists' knowledge of the sun's interior has expanded markedly in the past decade because of helioseismic data from instruments on the spacecraft SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) and ground-based networks including GONG (Global Oscillations Network Group).
Asteroseismology is the study of stars, other than the sun, by observing their quakes. In the past, ground-based observations detected quakes in a special type of stars called variable stars. However, observations of oscillations on other sun-like stars have only been made in the past few years.
Ground-based measurements have effectively obtained asteroseismic data of stellar frequencies, and the successful launch of the Canadian spacecraft MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars) is expected to provide new information to test theories of stellar structure and evolution.
The conference is sponsored by Yale, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation and the European Space Agency.
Abstracts and a program of the conference can be viewed at www.astro.yale.edu/sogo04. Participants can register online or on site.
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