Astroseismology is the study of star oscillations. On earth, the turbulence of the atmosphere causes a variation in the brightness of stars which we call twinkling. This twinkling completely hides the very small variations due to regular oscillations in a star. In space, the WIRE star tracker has enough accuracy to detect milli-magnitude variations, contributing valuable science measurements to this field.
CNN posted this report August 4, 1999. It describes the astroseismology results which Derek Buzasi is getting with the WIRE star tracker. Goddard configured the spacecraft to collect high-rate, raw star tracker data, and IPAC generates the timelines needed to collect the science data. Buzasi is studying the variation in the brightness of stars and comparing it to models of stellar oscillations.