Talk:Mira variable

Asymmetries in Mira Variables
"They are believed to be pulsating in radial modes, in which the entire star expands and contracts in spherical symmetry." Apparently this is incorrect. According to Nisenson, Peter; Karovska, M.; Papaliolios, Costas; and Boyle, R.P. ("Asymmetries in the Pulsations of Mira") Ap. J., Mira itself pulsates asymmetrically. The ratio of the longitudinal axis, to the minor is ~1.3/1.0.

OK but now we seem to have additional content on the asymmetricality -- with the old sentence on symmetry left in -- producing a contradiction halfway through paragraph 2.

I've corrected this prose-wise -- hopefully without my utter ignorance of the subject matter producing any factual distortion.

Non-pulsating Miras?
Nearly 70 years ago, one variable star astronomer concluded that "in long period variables we must look to changes in brightness rather than in size for the explanation of essentially all the light range." P. Merrill, Spectra of Long Period Variables, University of Chicago Press (1940) P. 94. (Miras are the premier examples of long period variables.)

This conclusion was based on spectroscopic evidence that contradicts the pulsation model.

Another oldie, but goodie.

In 1954, A. H. Joy published spectroscopic curves for Mira Ceti which demonstrate the problem mentioned above. Graphs in his study show that the apparent radial velocity variations of Mira variable atomic absorption lines are about 180 degrees out of phase with the the equivalent absorption line variations for Cepheid variables. For Mira Ceti, the apparent speed of recession reaches maximum nearly coincident with the star's maximum magnitude and its maximum apparent speed of approach occurs near minimum brightness.

Alfred H. Joy "Spectroscopic Observations of Mira CETI, 1934-1952," ''Ap. J. Supp.'' 1, 39 (1954)

See: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1954ApJS....1...39J

RobertFritzius (talk) 01:50, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

List of prominent Mira LPVs?
It'd be great to have a table on this page. My wiki skills aren't quite up to the mark to be able to do this yet unfortunately. Keen observers might care to note that U Orionis (range 6.5-12.0) will reach its 121st maxima since discovery back in 1885 around Feb 15, 2009 at mag +6.3. Stefansquintet (talk) 11:32, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

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 * A Wide-field view of the sky around a field studied in the MASSIV survey.jpg