By: Elaine Chumley Mu Cephei
Feb 24, 2016
By: Elaine Chumley
Mu Cephei
FormationFormed from exploded
supernovas. Gravity pulls the clouds of gas
and dust together.A collapsing cloud forms a hot
core that’s what starts to develop a star
Herschel's Garnet StarAKA: “Herschel’s Garnet Star" deep red color; Red GiantMost intensely colored stars ever
recorded when viewed through a telescope
HerschelName honers: star's deep color
and Sir William HerschelDiscovered planet Uranus 1781
Mu Cephei38,000 times brighter than the
sunLight years awayAbsolute visual magnitude: -6.7
ConstellationLocated in the constellation of
Cepheus:
ComparisonsLarger than the sunIf it replaced our sun, it would
extend as far to Jupiter or Saturn.
Location! Location! Location!Largest to naked eyeBest viewed during August
through January
One of the largest and brightest stars in the known galaxy.
Too far for a good parallax distance calculation.
Approx 2400 light years away.
Unstable and pulsatesSurrounded by warm water vapor
Shell of dust and gas
Death of Mu Cephei Nearing end of lifeCore is fusing helium to carbonIn a few million years the star will
explode as a supernova Stellar black hole
Citations http://www.windows2universe.org
/the_universe/MuCephi.htmlhttp://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/
garnet.htmlSierraStarGazers.orghttp://www.aavso.org/vsots_muce
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