Some waves ripple around the entire circumference of the star, while others dart right through the star’s core. The bigger the star, the longer it takes sound waves to travel in its interior. In the Sun, a typical wave completes one cycle in five minutes. Any given wave lasts a few days in Sun-like stars, but because new waves crop up all the time, stars are always vibrating. Red giants, which are dozens of times as big as the Sun, have lower-frequency waves that can propagate for weeks to months. By studying stars of various ages, scientists learn about what will happen to our own Sun as it gets older.



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