AUTHOR=Guzik Joyce Ann 

TITLE=Highlights of Discoveries for δ Scuti Variable Stars From the Kepler Era

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/astronomy-and-space-sciences/articles/10.3389/fspas.2021.653558

DOI=10.3389/fspas.2021.653558

ISSN=2296-987X

ABSTRACT=<p>The NASA <italic>Kepler</italic> and follow-on K2 mission (2009–2018) left a legacy of data and discoveries, finding thousands of exoplanets, and also obtaining high-precision long time-series data for hundreds of thousands of stars, including many types of pulsating variables. Here we highlight a few of the ongoing discoveries from <italic>Kepler</italic> data on δ Scuti pulsating variables, which are core hydrogen-burning stars of about twice the mass of the Sun. We discuss many unsolved problems surrounding the properties of the variability in these stars, and the progress enabled by <italic>Kepler</italic> data in using pulsations to infer their interior structure, a field of research known as asteroseismology.</p>