NASA's Kepler Telescope Spotted Strong Magnetic Fields Inside Stars (Video)

NASA's Kepler space telescope detected strong magnetic fields inside the stars. This could further explain the stellar evolution. The research was led by Dennis Stello from the University of Sydney, School of Physics in Australia and other international teams of colleagues. They used NASA's Kepler space telescope, which is known for finding and observing the other planets as well as the stars.

Researchers using @NASAKepler have found evidence of strong magnetic fields in the cores of stars.https://t.co/iJEUzO2qrE

— NASA (@NASA) August 4, 2016

Stello explained that if you want to understand how stars form and grow old, you need to understand the physical ingredients that govern their evolution. He further said that current standard of stars ignores magnetic field. This is because the stars are difficult to model. Stello added that magnetic fields are very common and should not be ignored, as noted by ScienceCasts.

Kepler surveys thousands of stars. It looks for minor variations in brightness that signals the transit of a planet across the stellar surface. The space telescope looks for a long-term record for star's brightness. This can be used for aster seismology, which analyzes the brightness fluctuations in examining the interior structure of the stars. These include the strength and the distribution of magnetic fields deep below the stellar surface.

The researchers examined about 3,600 giant stars. Stello stated that about 60 percent of the samples have strong internal magnetic fields and 20 percent have strong magnetic fields in their cores. A magnetic field is the compelling impact of electric currents and magnetic materials. It is specified by both a direction and a magnitude or strength. The theorists said that magnetic field has a major effect on stellar evolution.

Stello further said that because the most action of the star is in the core, this makes it the most significant for how the star evolves. He also explained that having a strong magnetic field in its core could potentially have significant effects on how the core spins up the outer layers of a star.