'Roundest Known Space Object' Identified
Astronomers claim to have discovered the roundest object ever measured in nature.
- Paul Rincon for BBC November 17th, 2016
- Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38014613
Kepler 11145123 is a distant, slowly rotating star that's more than twice the size of the Sun.
Researchers were able to show that the difference between its radius as measured to the equator and the radius measured to the poles was just 3km.
"This makes Kepler 11145123 the roundest natural object ever measured," said lead author Prof Laurent Gizon.
He added that it was "even more round than the Sun".
Prof Gizon, from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), and his colleagues used a technique called asteroseismology — the study of how stars pulsate, or oscillate.
