MPS Seminar: Asteroseismology: Observations of solar-like pulsators (G.Davies)

The success of the Kepler and CoRoT space missions, in collecting data on stellar variability for many thousands of stars, has led to the emergence of the field of asteroseismology as a powerful tool. Here I will consider observations of solar-like pulsators, stars that have outer convection zones to drive acoustic modes of oscillation. I will give an introduction to the observations that we make and how these allow us to infer the conditions inside a star. I will discuss what we have learnt about the rotation of these stars and how this has revolutionised our understanding of their rotational evolution. I will discuss the high-precision results achieved in characterising exoplanet host stars using the constraint of asteroseismology. And finally, I will look to the future and consider the exciting prospect of new science from the data of the K2, TESS, and PLATO missions.