Probing Stellar Physics through Asteroseismology

Conny Aerts, University of Leuven, Belgium



After a brief general introduction in the research area of asteroseismology, we illustrate how the CoRoT and Kepler space missions currently revolutionise our view on stellar interiors. The immense advantage of having long-term uninterrupted data from space with two orders of magnitude better precision compared to data from ground-based telescopes implies large progress in the probing of stellar physics. We discuss case studies for which gravity-mode oscillations were detected in addition to acoustic modes and show how this allowed modelling of the near-core regions in various types of stars. The transition from asteroseismology of single stars to the one of multiple systems and even ensembles of stars is also discussed. We end by highlighting future prospects based on the continuing data gathering by ongoing and future space missions complemented by large-scale ground-based surveys.