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Scientists did not record audible songs from stars. In a 2025 study, they analyzed tiny changes in the brightness of 27 stars in the cluster M67 and found a pattern in the stars’ oscillation frequencies that may reveal how their interiors change as they approach the red-giant phase.
What does “singing” mean when scientists talk about stars?
Stars can vibrate in patterns that astronomers study through asteroseismology. A telescope measures small, recurring changes in a star’s brightness; researchers analyze those variations to infer oscillation frequencies. The musical language is a metaphor for interpreting periodic signals, not evidence that sound travels through space to Earth. The Australian National University explains the brightness-to-frequency connection in its April 3, 2025, account of the study.
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These oscillations are sometimes called “starquakes,” but they are not earthquakes or audible recordings. The study’s “plateau” is likewise not a repeated tune: it is a feature in the relationship between measured frequency separations.
What did the researchers find in M67?
The team analyzed 27 stars in M67 using observations from NASA’s Kepler mission during its K2 campaign. Their paper, “Acoustic modes in M67 cluster stars trace deepening convective envelopes,” was published online in Nature on April 2, 2025.
As the stars evolve from subgiants toward red giants, the relationship between two kinds of oscillation-frequency spacing changes. The researchers report a plateau in that pattern and associate it with the bottom of the stars’ convective envelopes—the regions where energy moves through churning stellar material—deepening into the star.
Why compare two frequency separations?
The large frequency separation is related to a star’s density. The small frequency separations can reveal information about how sound speed changes inside a star; for Sun-like stars on the main sequence, they can also provide clues about the energy-generating core. In the M67 stars, the departures from the expected relationship between these measures mark the plateau. The study interprets those departures as a sign of the convective envelope’s influence as it extends inward.
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What does the 80% figure mean?
The paper describes the convective envelope entering an “ultradeep” regime at the end of the plateau, with roughly 80% of the star’s mass undergoing convection. This is a model-based interpretive detail for the stars and conditions examined—not a general rule that applies to every star.
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M67 is an open cluster whose stars formed around the same time and have similar chemical compositions. Comparing members at different evolutionary stages gives astronomers a way to investigate how stellar properties change while holding some important differences relatively steady. Lead author Claudia Reyes’s April 4, 2025, commentary for ANU Research puts the cluster almost 3,000 light-years away and notes that K2 observations enabled the team to follow stars through much of the giant phase.
Could the pattern help determine a star’s age?
Potentially, as one tool among others. Oscillation patterns offer evidence about a star’s internal structure and evolutionary state, which can help researchers estimate its age. Reyes told ANU that the work “provides a new tool to estimate their age, which is crucial for studying the evolution of our galaxy.” That is a research application, not a promise of a precise, universal age reading from one pattern. The result is based on 27 stars in M67, and interpreting the plateau involves stellar properties such as mass and metallicity.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can you hear these stars yourself?
No ordinary telescope or binoculars lets a person hear the frequency pattern reported here. The study depended on space-telescope brightness measurements and specialist analysis; the researchers did not publish audible recordings of the 27 stars. A separate news report about the finding also noted the absence of released recordings when it was published: Futurism, April 5, 2025. “Listening” in this context means interpreting measured signals, or potentially turning data into sound, not hearing a star unaided.
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