According to a new study, mass and size are the factors that contribute to the surface gravity of a star, which is a fundamental property. Also, it provides vital information about what is going on in the star's outer layers. Small changes occur in the star's luminosity because of high gravity.

If accurate gravitational measurements can be obtained, much will be figured out about the processes by which stars evolve. It was unveiled by a new analysis of data by the Kepler observatory that there is an association between small fluctuations in a stars' brightness and the surface gravity.

Fabienne Bastien, Keivan Stassun, Gibor Basri, and Joshua Pepper deduced the above conclusion after comparing existing surface gravity estimates with the short-period variations in the same stars' brightness.

Researchers said that it should be possible to find out the star's gravity from its flickering alone. It may allow astronomers to measure surface gravity of stars, which is otherwise impossible for them because of their distance from earth.

Keivan Stassun, who is Vanderbilt astrophysicist and study coauthor, said that the new technique could provide researchers significant information of star's size, surface gravity and stage of life through modest fluctuations.

He added, "All this information is encoded in a star's brightness in such a wonderfully simple way".