Dec 15, 2024
RS Puppis
This remarkable star is what is known as a Cepheid variable star, a star that changes it's brightness over a predictable period of time.
As the star expands it becomes more red in colour (more surface area to dissipate all that energy), and therefore dims.
The reason this is really interesting is because many stars exhibit this kind of variance, and the difference between the dip and top of the brightness change can tell you how far away the star is, even as far out to other galaxies.
Additionally the star sits in a sizable nebula that lets you see the light waves as the star intensifies and dips in brightness
