SWIPE: Stars WIth Pulsations and Eclipses

We have quite a good understanding about how stars form and evolve, but a lot of the details are still not fully sorted. This is already an important problem, but will become more so in 2026 with the launch of the PLATO satellite. PLATO will observe bright stars to find small planets transiting them.

An understanding of these planets requires an understanding of their host stars, which is obtained using theoretical predictions of the properties of stars. Our imperfect understanding of the details of how stars evolve limits how well we can measure their ages, and thus understand how planets change with age.

Our project (SWIPE: Stars WIth Pulsations and Eclipses) will measure the properties of a set of stars which are pulsating but also in eclipsing binary star systems. The eclipses will be used to measure the radii of the stars, masses will be measured using celestial mechanics, and the frequencies at which sound waves propagate through the star will be determined.

Our detailed measurements of each star will allow us to determine more of the details of how stars behave, thus improving our understanding of them. This in turn will allow better predictions of the properties of stars, and thus better measurements of the ages of stars and of the planets orbiting them. We will therefore use eclipsing binary stars to further our understanding of how planets form and change over time.

Our work will also be used as a resource for a significant public impact and outreach project: sonification (visualising stars using sound). We will generate a set of sounds and animations of binary and pulsating stars and present them in the StarDome (Keele University's award-winning mobile inflatable planetarium) to enthuse local schoolchildren in astronomy in particular and STEM subjets in general. We will also make our results available on a website so they can be used and enjoyed worldwide.