Скачать или смотреть Tracking Star Ages with NASA’s TESS

Stars display several observable changes as they age. For example, in Sun-like stars, the rate of rotation slows over millions of years. The number of dark surface features called star spots also decreases.

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) scans a wide swath of the sky for about a month at a time, looking for variations in the light from stars to spot orbiting planets. Scientists the same TESS data to determine how fast the stars are rotating by looking at regular fluctuations in their light caused when star spots come in and out of view. Because rotation slows with age, astronomers can use TESS to learn more about how stars evolve over time.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center