Astronomers have developed a new way of measuring cosmic distances by listening to the frequencies of "music" played by vibrating stars that collectively act as a vast orchestra of different cosmic instruments.
The results could help the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite Gaia better measure the positions of about two billion stars as well as their distances from Earth and movements while building a precise, 3-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
Scientists typically use a process called parallax, the apparent shift in an object's position when seen from two different locations, to measure the distance to various stars. They measure angles of the star itself then, using Gaia's position in space, attempt to triangulate. The problem, however, is that the more distant a star is, the smaller the apparent displacement of parallax is. And the smaller the parallax displacement, the more likely minute systematic errors are to creep in, potentially creating bias in the measurements.
