Final Report Summary - ASTERISK (ASTERoseismic Investigations with SONG and Kepler)
Although space photometry has provided outstanding data for asteroseismology, radial-velocity observations of solar-like pulsators have a huge advantage over space photometry in terms of the ratio between the stellar oscillation signal and background ‘noise’. Thus the ultimate potential for asteroseismology lies in radial-velocity observations of carefully selected bright and nearby stars, with the added advantage that the stars can be very well characterized by other observational techniques. This is the goal of the Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) whose first telescope, the Hertzsprung SONG Telescope on Tenerife, entered operations in 2014. This has provided unique data on oscillations of several stars, which are now being analysed, and in addition has provided large sets of observations of specific targets addressing a range of scientific goals.