Astronomers take the pulse of a distant galaxy: Researchers reveal shimmering 'heartbeat' of dying stars When a star approaches the end of its lifetime, it swells up and swallows the planets around it, emitting a pulsating heartbeat of light. In a scientific first, according to Yale News, astronomers at Yale and Harvard have taken the pulse of distant galaxy called M87, and measured the effects of older red stars on the light of their surroundings. 'We tend to think of galaxies as steady beacons in the sky, but they are actually 'shimmering' due to all the giant, pulsating stars in them,' said Pieter van Dokkum, Sol Goldman Professor and chair of astronomy at Yale, who co-authored the study. As a star near's the end of its life will increase and decrease in brightness every few hundred days. This fluctuation is called its pulse. Many stars in the Milky Way have begun this phase of life. Researchers at Yale and Harvard measured the effects of these pulses on their surrounding galaxies. The study looked at the pulse of M87, a galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Pulse was recorded at a mean of one beat every 270 days. Though considered an older galaxy, it will still live on for an estimated trillion years from now. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3320992/Astronomers-pulse-distant-galaxy-Researchers-reveal-shimmering-heartbeat-dying-stars.html