Asteroseismology Through the Ages
David Guenther
St. Mary’s University


For decades astronomers have promised that the micro-magnitude, periodic variations in luminosity seen in the Sun if observed in other stars would improve our understanding of how stars work. In what way does our understanding of how stars work need improving? And what have we learned so far? Following a selected historical introduction to stellar modeling and pulsation analysis, I will concentrate on the encouraging results for pre-main-sequence stars based on ground based observations, the ambiguous albeit enlightening results on Procyon from Canada’s MOST satellite, and the extraordinary but already controversial results on a sun-like star from France’s COROT satellite.

Date: Thursday, 19 February 2009
Time: 12:30
Where: Université de Montréal
  Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, Local D-460
Contact: Gilles Fontaine