• Question: Does the sun actually pulsate because preesure causes it's volume to increase, then the pressure decreases again due to the larger volume.

    Asked by Octopus Prime to Simon, Julia, Delma, Andrew, Alex on 10 Dec 2015.
    • Photo: Delma Childers

      Delma Childers answered on 10 Dec 2015:

      Great question! For pulsating stars, the key is density, temperature, and the types of Helium (oh yes, there are different states of helium) in certain layers of the star, which influence the changes in brightness of the star. For our sun, it pulsates just slightly and on a roughly 11 year cycle. But there is still a lot we don’t know about how our sun pulsates.

    • Photo: Andrew Winnard

      Andrew Winnard answered on 10 Dec 2015:

      Hi Octupus Prime – another great question!

      I agree with what Delma wrote here! Also I tweeted @matravers to say how awesome you guys did in the chat too! Keep working like this and you could all easily end up working in a space linked job in the future!

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