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RS Puppis, one of the brightest known Cepheid variable stars in the Milky Way galaxy (Hubble Space Telescope) A Cepheid variable (/ ˈ s ɛ f i. ɪ d, ˈ s iː f i-/) is a type of variable star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature. It changes in brightness, with a well-defined stable period and amplitude.
In astronomy, a period-luminosity relation is a relationship linking the luminosity of pulsating variable stars with their pulsation period. The best-known relation is the direct proportionality law holding for Classical Cepheid variables, sometimes called the Leavitt Law.
The term s-Cepheid is used for short period small amplitude Cepheids with sinusoidal light curves that are considered to be first overtone pulsators. They are found near the red edge of the instability strip. Some authors use s-Cepheid as a synonym for the small amplitude DCEPS stars, while others prefer to restrict it only to first overtone stars.
Type II Cepheids are not as well known as their type I counterparts, with only a couple of naked eye examples. In this list, the period quoted for RV Tauri variables is the interval between successive deep minima, hence twice the comparable period for the other sub-types.
Delta Cephei (δ Cep, δ Cephei) is a quadruple star system [4] located approximately 887 light-years away in the northern constellation of Cepheus, the King.At this distance, the visual magnitude of the star is diminished by 0.23 as a result of extinction caused by gas and dust along the line of sight. [6]
The nearby Cepheid variables were population I stars with much higher metal content than the distant population II stars. As a result, the population II stars were actually much brighter than believed, and when corrected, this had the effect of doubling the estimates of distances to the globular clusters, the nearby galaxies, and the diameter ...
If the star lies on the main sequence, as determined by its luminosity class, the spectral type of the star provides a good estimate of the star's absolute magnitude. Knowing the apparent magnitude (m) and absolute magnitude (M) of the star, one can calculate the distance (d, in parsecs) of the star using m − M = 5 log ( d / 10 ...
The distance to RS Puppis is important because Cepheids serve as a marker for distances within the Milky Way galaxy and for nearby galaxies.. Because it is located in a large nebula, astronomers using the ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla Observatory, Chile have been able to measure its distance in 2008 by strictly geometric analysis of light echoes from particles in the nebula ...