Vanavond wordt in het Academiegebouw in Leiden de jaarlijkse Oortlezing gegeven en wel door Conny Aerts, hoogleraar wiskunde en astronomie aan de KU Leuven. Het onderwerp van de lezing, die de 30e Oortlezing in de geschiedenis is, is ‘Starquakes and Exoplanets in the Milky Way‘. Ik ga er samen met collega-astrobloggers Jan Brandt en Paul Bakker naar toe. Hieronder een samenvatting van de lezing, die in het Engels zal worden gegeven.
Starquakes and Exoplanets in our Milky Way
Just as with our Sun and Earth, the lives of other stars and their exoplanets are intimately connected. By knowing more about a star, we can learn more about the planets circling it and their ability to contain life. One particular star phenomenon that can give us incredible accurate insights is starquakes: smooth shakings of a star due to internal rearrangements. These quakes are slightly similar to our own earthquakes but occur much more regularly. In this year’s Oort lecture, professor Conny Aerts of the University of Leuven, will take the public into the world of asteroseismology, showing which undiscovered data we can retrieve from starquakes and how they can tell us more about exoplanets and their habitability.