Astronomers Discover Roundest Star

Asteroseismologists delving into the Kepler mission's data trove have found a star that appears to be more spherical than any natural object.


News flash! This just in: a star is round!

OK, on the face of it this result, published in the November 16 Science Advances, seems worthy of sarcasm. But actually, it is a surprise that a star should be spherical.

As a rule, stars, planets, and other celestial objects spin, and as they whirl they bulge out along their equators, meaning they’re shaped more like squat onions than perfect spheres. Rotational forces create equatorial bulges on the Sun, the Moon, and Earth, too: our planet’s equatorial radius spans 43 kilometers(27 miles) more than its polar radius, a difference of 0.3%.

(See more...)