Starquake

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sudden tremor or readjustment within a star, much like an earthquake, that releases energy and makes the star pulse or change brightness
2. An abrupt internal shaking of a star caused by shifts in its crust or core, which can alter its oscillations and sometimes its light output
3. A violent movement inside a star's outer layers that sends seismic-like waves through it and can briefly change how it shines

Etymology: Starquake is a blend of "star" and "earthquake," built the way English has long made new compounds by fusing two familiar words into one. The "quake" half carries the sense of violent shaking, and "star" supplies the object being shaken, so the word describes the internal tremors of a star much as an earthquake describes tremors in the ground. The idea behind it is genuinely physical. Stars pulse and ring as sound and pressure waves travel through their interiors, and astronomers study these oscillations to infer what lies beneath the surface, a field called asteroseismology. The comparison to Earth's seismology is deliberate: scientists read the vibrations of a star the way geologists read seismic waves to map the layers of the planet.

Synonyms: stellar quake