Time-lapse video of a variable star – RS Puppis

Astronomers have observed RS Puppis, with Hubble, over a period of five weeks in 2010 took pictures and develop a time-lapse video.

RS Puppis:

RS Puppis is a type of star known as a Cepheid variable star. Cepheid stars are the types of stars having variable brightness with time. It is present in the constellation of Puppis approximately 6,500 light-years away from us. This star is over 10 times more massive and 200 times huge than our Sun, and 15,000 times more bright.

RS Puppis brightens and dims over a 6-week cycle in a regular pattern and as a result of thick, dark clouds of dust around it; it has a beautiful phenomenon of light echo that is similar to sound echo in terms of light. Their periodic pulsations are related to their intrinsic brightness.

Stars such as RS Puppis help astronomers to measure and understand the huge Universe.

This video zooms in on the variable star RS Puppis. The sequence begins with a view of the night sky near the southern constellation of Puppis. It then zooms through observations from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, and ends with a view of the star as obtained by Hubble.

Source:

Hubble Zooms in on Variable Star RS Puppis – Sci-News (http://goo.gl/pxE7KF)

Zooming in on variable star RS Puppis – Hubble (http://goo.gl/2cO87H)