The sound of the stars: Granada scientists describe 'celestial music'

'SEEING stars' is one thing, but hearing them is quite another – and not something most of us would believe was even possible. The idea of stars 'sounding like' anything at all will probably have crossed very few people's minds – but Granada University and the Andalucía Institute of Astrophysics have just answered a question not many of us knew we needed to ask.

“It's a bit like a concert hall with an unhappy audience, constantly talking so the music is difficult to hear,” the team reveals.

Like other objects in nature, such as the shape of a cauliflower or the outline of a mountain, the researchers explain, stars have a 'fractal structure' – an irregular or fragmented geometric shape at all scales of measurement between the largest and smallest.

This means their level of light emitted changes periodically and they pulsate, as the density waves and alterations in temperature inside them are forced to the surface, making the stars oscillate, or turn.

These oscillations form tri-dimensional patterns in the same manner as that of a guitar or the skin of a drum do so in single or two-dimensional patterns.

As each star is different in structure, they pulsate and oscillate differently, and can be classified into sound-making categories like different musical instruments.

In a nutshell, the stars create music, although the pulsations mean this is obscured by a persistent background murmur, like a crowd of people all talking at once.

Scientists are working on separating the 'murmur' from the 'music' using an algorithm based upon Fourier's harmonic analysis.

Astrophysics have advanced to such a degree that, these days, it is perfectly possible to see, and very clearly, how the inside of a star is made up and study the physical mechanisms that govern their pulsations.