Overview

• An international team led by the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal detected the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded on Epsilon Indi, an orange dwarf star.
• The discovery was made using asteroseismology with the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
• This technological breakthrough demonstrates that precise asteroseismology is achievable for cool dwarfs with surface temperatures significantly lower than the Sun's.
• The findings have implications for the search for habitable planets, as accurately sizing stars is crucial for identifying potential habitable worlds.
• The ESA's upcoming PLATO Mission will use these results to further explore oscillations in orange dwarfs and search for planets around them.