Chi Cygni expands and dims, and then contracts and brightens over 408 days

[CookieMonzta1995]

How come at night I can see bright non-moving objects in the sky which pulsate and change colors? I know they are not aviation vehicles as they are in the same place each time I go to bed.

[1787dude]

its having moodswings XDDDDD

[Geminii27]

Great, some Ascended species is using it as a doof-doof speaker.

[siderespector]

It's an S-type Mira variable. It's half way becoming a carbon star up on the unstable AGB-branch. It will end as a planetary nebula, not as a supernova. SN:s, type II, belong to the supergiant classes, I think lum classes Ia and Ib. This is a lum class III ordinary giant. When being an advanced AGB-branch carbon star, it will finally shed off its own atmosphere, which becomes a planetary nebula, while the core contracts and finally ends as a white dwarf.

[siderespector]

Chi Cygni is not very unique. It is however the Mira star with greatest brightness variation (amplitude), and the apparently brightest S-type star in the sky.

[anditstruetoo]

@siderespector

So....?? Will the stockmarkets go upppp oorrr downnnn??

[ctreber]

The bulge on the right - is it for real or an image artefact?

[Mystakaphoros]

I'm very curious about that as well. Gravity should be a pretty universal contracting force, but a star at this stage might be hella unstable as well.

[Surakon58]

One heck of a stellar furnace, wonder if she's getting ready togo SuperNova

[pertinentmoose]

Nova at most. Too small for super.

[Surakon58]

@pertinentmoose Wiki doesnt show to much on this one, think it's to small for SN? at 350LY it would be a show

[SARGAMESH]

this actualy happend a couple million years ago

[arstovicek]

@SARGAMESH

If you're referring to Chi Cygni, it's only 550 light years away. Far closer than a couple million.

[Mystakaphoros]

Nah, it probably happened right around the time Constantinople fell.

[cupcakewalk]

Dave: You working up your crew psychology report?

HAL: Of course I am. Sorry about this. I know it's a bit silly.

[Mystakaphoros]

I am STUNNED by the resolution on this.  I had no idea we could actually see stars this up-close. Hooray for very-long-base interferometry!

[rpresser]

It will not go nova or supernova; instead it will eventually throw off a planetary nebula. Actually it is probably starting to do that already.

[webhead84]

ummm what would happen when it goes nova? or super nova!!

[xanmm]

It never ever does that. Not enough mass.

[Hilariousity]

why don't you take a basic college astronomy class and find out?

[webhead84]

i was thinking due to stellar closeness

if the debris shed would pass near us

even a weak wave would possibly cause some sorta effect ....but there are a lot of variables to take into account.

[Evi1M4chine]

Imagine the sheer size change that that star goes trough! One part of the month, its way beyond mars, and the other month, its eating Jupiter or something like that! Imagine that giant wall of fire moving like that! You could literally see it being a bit bigger on the next morning! Boy, thats a really frightening thing to imagine! How freakin huge that thing is!!

[rubinbennett]

Soundtrack: =======DROID===== :)

[kayakrkayakr]

If we speed up the video some more it will go really well with a techno soundtrack.

[giochi4]

That used to be our home. Humanity (DNA based life forms, to be precise) moved to earth so we could avoid being destroyed. Don't you remember?

[hurricanefloyd1]

LMAO @ the actual fact that most heavier elements in the universe, including the ones we are made of, are theorized to be the dusty remnants of dead stars.

[webhead84]

with the generally accepted fact of the big bang it means that fundamentally that no matter where your origins are in this universe , we're all connected on the basic fundamental level of physics and since most life would have an energy basis we're all energy expressions of the universe @ hand and unique unto ourselves

[erikopnemer]

All this has happened before, and it will happen again.

[teridon]

It seems non-spherical or at least non-uniform in brightness when it is smaller -- why is that?

[Evi1M4chine]

An article that I read, states: Observations by the Infrared Optical Telescope Array found that, at minimum radius, Chi Cygni shows marked inhomogeneities due to roiling "hotspots" on its surface.

[Mystakaphoros]

I wonder if that's just a figment of it getting brighter at that point with maybe less dust in the way or something. But I noticed that too.

[eclectro]

The oscillations are amazingly uniform from cycle to cyle!

[Zencyde]

@eclectro I think it's a bit stranger that the magnitude adjusts at a constant rate. There are some bumps but that slope looks crazy consistent.

[Mystakaphoros]

Hell, they could be off by a million miles... at this scale, who cares? :)

[beanNronin]

Не выгорают!

[bigdonthedj]

Science!

[bsm117532]

It works, bitches.

[bigdonthedj]

It certainly does \m/

[andreshope]

Asombroso!