Mira, The Strangest Star In The Universe!
In the universe above, there are many, MANY kinds of stars. there are ones that shine brighter than any other out there, and there are some that are so dim that you won't be able to see them unless you're very close to them. Some stars become black holes, and some become Neutron Stars that are arguably SCARIER than black holes. Regardless though, there's no doubt that stars make up a large part of our universe, which is why when it comes to the star known as Mira, it's a strange one.
Why is it so strange compared to all the other stars in the sky and the universe beyond? Because it is technically a falling star. Which I'm sure gives you all sorts of imagery, but it's not exactly what you think, and yet, it is kind of what you would expect.
Let's start with the basics, shall we? Mira as it is known is a star that is 700 times larger than the diameter of our own sun. Which makes it quite sizeable when you consider that our sun is 865,370 miles in diameter. That's not a small star, which makes Mira very massive in comparison.
As for when we found this very unusual star, that would be 134 BC via the astronomer known as Hipparchus. This was backed up by various other Chinese astronomers in their own journals, and obviously today we can confirm that it is a star that is in our sky. But that's only the beginning of the story. Because when it comes to its weirdness, a very random encounter led to that bit of information being discovered.
David Fabricius was the one who made this unique discovery. But he wasn't looking for the star, rather, he was looking at Mercury.
Anyway, getting back to Mira, the reason that Fabricius was so fascinated by it was that it appeared to be a rather interesting bright star with a magnitude of 3. But, as he kept watching it, by the end of August (a mere two weeks or so after first discovery), he noticed that the intensity of the star had actually grown to magnitude 2. Which made it not just a very bright star, but one that was the brightest in the constellation it was in. Which shouldn't have been possible based on what we know on stars and their movements and abilities. Right?
And it only got weirder as the months went on, because in September, it didn't get bigger and brighter, instead, it shrank and got dimmer. Then, by October, the entire star had vanished from the sky.
Perplexed, Fabricius decided to not try and find the star as he felt it wasn't worth the effort for what was "clearly" not a new star. But then, 13 years later, on February 5th, 1609...the star came back, and Fabricius was there to see it once again. And he wasn't the only one to notice, because a few years prior, Jonathan Bayer had noticed the star in the sky and put it in his famous Star Atlas. But because he wasn't with Fabricius in the decade prior, he didn't understand the importance of the star or what it could mean for astronomy as a whole.
Mainly in that there isn't just one star called Mira, there is a satellite star called Mira B that circles that main star, and unlike Mira, it's a White Dwarf star.
Why does this matter? Because this particular White Dwarf star is FEEDING off of Mira, and that means it's having a direct affect on the star. But, there's a twist in the tale here. You see, you'd think that this feeding would be noticed, or that the star would've been caught a lot earlier by Fabricius or Bayer or someone else, right? Except, it wasn't, and for good reason. The reason it hadn't be discovered until 1919 was because Mira B only orbits its parent star once every 400 years.
So that means that since Fabricius "found" the star all the way back in 1596, that it hasn't had a full rotation around Mira. What's more, the distance between Mira and Mira B is much greater than the distance between Earth and our Sun.
And would you believe it? There is STILL more to talk about with this star. In 2003, a very special satellite known as the Galex was set to observe Mira, and when it did, it noticed something very unexpected. Mainly, there is a trail of mass being left behind by the star. Which because of its orbit and movement throughout the galaxy it's in, makes it appear like a comets tail. To be clear, this is NOT the mass that is being absorbed by Mira B. It's something else entirely.
Would you like to know the length of that "tail"? That would be 13 light years. If you need a little context as to how long that is, I'll help you out. If you were to draw a line from our sun to the closest star that is next to it, you'd reach Alpha Centauri in about 4.2 light years.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Discovering Mira
00:15 Mira's Unique Characteristics
02:20 The History and Observation of Mira
04:35 Scientific Significance of Mira's Variability
06:50 The Future of Mira
09:10 Implications for Understanding Stellar Evolution
12:15 Conclusion: Mira's Place in Cosmic Discovery
#insanecuriosity #star #universe
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