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

This movie combines infrared images of the surface of Chi Cygni, obtained with IOTA, with visual brightness measurements provided by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Chi Cygni demonstrates a 408-day-period of expanding and dimming, followed by contracting and brightening. Credit: Sylvestre Lacour, Observatoire de Paris

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Science & Technology

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• animation

[bsm117532]

It works, bitches.

[bigdonthedj]

Science!

[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.

[anditstruetoo]

@siderespector

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

[1787dude]

its having moodswings XDDDDD

[Geminii27]

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

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Mystakaphoros]

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