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The colloquial term shooting star actually refers to a meteor. Small rocks or metallic bodies called meteoroids, often enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, forming streaks of light across the sky, called meteors. Sometimes they reach the ground before burning up completely, then they are called meteorites.

However, there exists real shooting stars hurtling through the galaxy at incredible speeds.

MIRA

Constellation: Cetus
Right Ascension: 02h19m20.79210s
Declination: -02°58'39.4956"
Distance: ~300ly (~90pc)

Spectral Type: M7IIIe
Apparent Magnitude: 2.0 to 10.1 (var)


o Ceti (omicron Ceti), or Mira, is a binary system of a red giant and a white dwarf.

Mira A, the red giant, is a pulsating variable star in the AGB(Asymptotic Giant Branch) phase. 'Mira' means 'astonishing' or 'wonderful' in Latin. Mira was the first non-nova variable star discovered. It pulsates approximately every 11 months. As it goes through different stages of fusion, it expands and contracts in size and varies in luminosity.

This beauty once went from the almost invisible 10th magnitude to the 2nd magnitude - one of the brightest in the sky. And then disappeared back into darkness for months. That’s a factor of 1,700 in luminosity! As it does so, it sheds off mass to the environment. Hence, Mira forms the prototype of a whole new type of star - the Mira Variables.

Mira B, the white dwarf, orbits the red giant at about 70 AU every 497 years. It accretes upon the mass lost by the companion, thus forming the closest symbiotic system to Sun.

The most astounding feature is the tail that formed of the shedded material. Revealed by GALEX(Galaxy Evolution Explorer Telescope), this extraordinary structure is visible only in ultraviolet. The hot plasma let off by Mira A while moving through the ISM(Interstellar Medium) at 130 km/s, collides with the cool ISM to form this prodigious tail.

Mira A is about 6 billion years old, and the tail is about 13 ly long! This suggests that it started forming at least 30,000 years ago! And it’s massive enough to form 300 Earths!


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Credit:

Images, clips: NASA/ESA, ESO, videezy.com, Space Engine

Music:
1. 'Dreamer' by Hazy    • Hazy - Dreamer  
2. 'Voices of a Distant Star' by Killigrew - Music Producer
   • Krisu - Voices of a Distant Star  
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