Is "astroseismology" a legitimate tool?

[crashcow]

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009 ... -spin.html

I read the short article I've linked to above, and I thought I'd ask around the Thunderbolts community to see what, if any credence, should be given to Mr. Fontaine's use of astroseismology to "map the inside of a white dwarf" star. It didn't really resonate with me, particularly as the article states that "White dwarfs are the dying embers of collapsed stars that are slowly cooling and fading away. They occur when a star has burned through all of its helium and expands to more than 100 times its original size, into a red giant", which just doesn't sit well with me at all.

Bear in mind, I'm a layman and I'm still trying to immerse myself in EU theory in the hopes of better understanding this universe I'm living in. You guys have been helpful to me in the past, and I'm hopeful I can ask this question of you without seeming like too much of a fathead in the process.

By the way, if you want to weigh in on CBC's comments section, I'm sure it'd prove to be rather refreshing to hear some opinions aired from the EU community. I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled for any and all responses.

Thanks in advance,

Crashcow.

[Lloyd]

* I think asteroseismology is pretty well-founded. That's what was used to discover the jet streams in the sun, a few thousand kilometers below the photosphere, which change with the sunspot cycle.
* Here's an explanation of it from Wikipedia.

Asteroseismology also known as Stellar seismology[1][2] is the science that studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star. These oscillations provide information about the otherwise unobservable interiors of stars in a manner similar to how seismologists study the interior of Earth and other solid planets through the use of earthquake oscillations.[2]

The oscillations studied by asteroseismologists are driven by thermal energy converted into kinetic energy of pulsation. This process is similar to what goes on with any heat engine, in which heat is absorbed in the high temperature phase of oscillation and emitted when the temperature is low. The main mechanism for stars is the net conversion of radiation energy into pulsational energy in the surface layers of some classes of stars. The resulting oscillations are usually studied under the assumption that they are small, and that the star is isolated and spherically symmetric. In binary star systems, stellar tides can also have a significant influence on the star's oscillations. One application of asteroseismology is neutron stars, whose inner structure cannot be directly observed, but may be possible to infer through studies of neutron-star oscillations.[citation needed]

Helioseismology, also known as Solar seismology, is the closely related field of study focused on the Sun. Oscillations in the Sun are excited by convection in its outer layers, and observing solar-like oscillations in other stars is a new and expanding area of asteroseismology.

Asteroseismology provides the tool to find the internal structure of stars. The pulsation frequencies give the information about the density profile of the region where the waves originate and travel. The spectrum gives the information about its chemical constituents. Both can be used to give information about the internal structure.

Waves in sun-like stars can be divided into three different types;[citation needed]

* Acoustic or pressure (p) modes,[2] driven by internal pressure fluctuations within a star; their dynamics being determined by the local speed of sound. http://www.ap.smu.ca/~guenther/Level01/ ... ology.html
* Gravity (g) modes, driven by buoyancy,[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_wave
* Surface gravity (f) modes, akin to ocean waves along the stellar surface.[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_wave

Within a sun-like star, such as Alpha Centauri, the p-modes are the most prominent as the g-modes are essentially confined to the core by the convection zone. However, g-modes have been observed in white dwarf stars.[3]

* Helioseismology was first used apparently about 12 years ago, when Thornhill said to the Thoth email group as follows. http://www.kronia.com/thoth/thoth22.txt

REMARKS ON SOLAR JET STREAM WEATHER, By Wal Thornhill
I've downloaded the images and text [of the above article] to find that it offers startling confirmation of the "Electric Universe" model, which sees the Sun being powered externally by plasma currents from the galaxy. Few, if any of the features on the Sun have any right being there if it is purely an isolated nuclear source of energy. For example, if the Sun is an isolated body in space radiating away its internal energy, then it should have no "weather". If the solar wind is carrying energy away from the Sun, slowing it down, then it's equator should be spinning more slowly than the higher latitudes, not faster. But if the Sun is being powered externally, like an electric motor, the equatorial plasma will be driven to rotate faster creating complex electromagnetic interactions in the conductive plasma of the Sun, interpreted in the attached article as "weather".

Of particular note is the reference to the similarity of the solar jet streams to the banding on Jupiter. As I have written many times over recent years, I believe Jupiter's "weather" is largely driven externally by some of the electrical energy intercepted from the galactic plasma circuit centered on the Sun. Since the mechanism is the same in both cases, the discovery is not surprising. The fact that planetary winds are more ferocious the farther away from the Sun, may be explained also by electrical energy input. That the Earth participates in this electrical circuit, in its own small way, is shown by the direct correlation between earthly thunderstorm activity and the sunspot cycle. ...