Rotation is thought to drive cyclic magnetic activity in the Sun and Sun-like stars. Stellar dynamos, however, are poorly understood owing to the scarcity of observations of rotation and magnetic fields in stars. Here, inferences are drawn on the int
ernal rotation of a distant Sun-like star by studying its global modes of oscillation. We report asteroseismic constraints imposed on the rotation rate and the inclination of the spin axis of the Sun-like star HD 52265, a principal target observed by the CoRoT satellite that is known to host a planetary companion. These seismic inferences are remarkably consistent with an independent spectroscopic observation (rotational line broadening) and with the observed rotation period of star spots. Furthermore, asteroseismology constrains the mass of exoplanet HD 52265b. Under the standard assumption that the stellar spin axis and the axis of the planetary orbit coincide, the minimum spectroscopic mass of the planet can be converted into a true mass of 1.85 (+0.52,-0.42) M_Jupiter, which implies that it is a planet, not a brown dwarf.
It has been established earlier that sharp features like the base of the convective zone or the second helium ionisation zone inside a star give rise to sinusoidal oscillations in the frequencies of pulsation. The acoustic depth of such features can
be estimated from this oscillatory signal in the frequencies. We apply this technique for the CoRoT frequencies of the solar-type star HD49933. This is the first time that such analysis has been done of seismic data for any star other than the Sun. We are able to determine the acoustic depth of both the base of the convective zone and the HeII ionisation zone of HD49933 within 10% error from the second differences of the frequencies. The locations of these layers using this technique is in agreement with the current seismic models of HD49933.
