I am an astrophysicist at the School of Physics at the University of Sydney where I am part of the Stellar Oscillations Group at SIfA.
To contact me see my contact details.

My main area of research is asteroseismology -- the study of stars through the interpretation of their oscillations -- which aims to understand stellar structure and evolution.
In particular, my interest and expertise are within:
 - Observation and interpretation of stellar oscillations
 - Modelling stellar evolution and pulsation
 - Solar-like oscillations
 - Stellar clusters
 - Red giant stars
 - Automatic data analysis software

Dennis Stello's publications and Resume/CV.

M67 multi-site campaign. I led a global multi-site observing campaign with about a dozen telescopes in Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, North- and South America. The aim was to detect stellar oscillations on a large number of stars that were all 'born' at the same time out of the same cloud of interstellar gas.

What is Asteroseismology?

When you blow through a trumpet, plug the string of a guitar, or move your finger across the rim of the wine glass to make it ring, you are creating standing sound waves. These sound waves depend on the physical properties of the 'ringing' object, such as its size and shape, its temperature, and what it is made of. For example, if you fill the wine glass with water it sounds differently than when it is empty. If you play the trumpet at room temperature it sounds differently than if you had just taken it out of a freezer. And while a violin and a cello look very similar you will have no trouble telling which is which purely from the sound they make. In a similar way astronomers can obtain knowledge about the interiors of stars, like their size, temperature, and composition by measuring the frequencies of the oscillations caused by standing sound waves inside the stars. This technique-- called Asteroseismology -- is analogue to 'Earth'-seismology where geologists measure sound waves in the Earth triggered by earthquakes to find out what the Earth's interior is made of.

The oscillations in a star makes the star ring like a large spherical bell, with regions of compression and expansion as illustrated in the cartoon as yellow and red regions. Detecting the oscillations can be done by measuring the Doppler shift of the surface of the star, which measures the speed by which the surface is literally moving in and out as the star oscillate. The surface of a star like the Sun will only move in and out by about 100m with speeds of a few metres per second, roughly walking speed, while a more evolved star like a Red Giant will oscillate more vigorously with amplitudes 10 to 100 times larger. Another technique is to measure the brightness of the star as it changes due to the compression and expansion.  These brightness variations are of the order of a few parts per million (less than 0.001%) for a Sun-like star, and about  0.01 to 0.1% for a Red Giant. It is truly amazing that these tiny oscillations on a star many light years away can be measured from Earth! Listen to the sound of the stars alpha Cen A  A star slightly older and bigger than the Sun. xi Hydrae      A more massive and much more evolved red giant star, with a radius 10 times that of the Sun.

Oscillating star (credit: DASC)

Current students:
Daniel Huber (PhD: University of Sydney)
Timothy White (PhD: University of Sydney)
Julie Lykke (MSc: Aarhus University)
Enrico Corsaro (PhD: University of Catania)

Media and outreach:

- Ultrabass Sounds of the Giant Star Xi Hya (April 2002).
The first asteroseismic observation of a star very different from the Sun.
ESO press release (ESO PR 10/02).