Had you asked me what Mira was before this week, I would have (correctly) told you that it is the name of a variable star. It turns out that it is Omicron Ceti, a red giant star approximately 418 light years away in the souther constellation Cetus (the Whale). It is also a well known variable star: oscillating from magnitude 2.0 to magnitude 4.9, a variation in brightness of almost 15.

What’s new are ultraviolet studies done by NASA from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer telescope. Apparently the star is leaving a trail of material almost 13 light years long as it travels through space. Very cool!

NASA – Mira: A Star with a Comets Tail

[tags]Astronomy,Mira[/tags]