With a Motive for expanding our knowledge of Astronomy, the club decided to get together every Thursday for discussions on the recent events in the area. The first one of such Thursdays saw a discussion on variable stars. Basically, Variables are those objects in the night sky whose apparent brightness (i.e. as seen from earth) changes over time. The changes may be due to a variation in the star’s actual luminosity, intrinsic variables or due to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth, Extrinsic variables.
Our very own pole star or Polaris belongs to the class of Variable Stars, accurately, it is part of the Cepheid variables, a class of pulsating stars that swell and shrink extremely regularly. Generally in each subgroup of the class, a fixed relation holds between period and absolute magnitude, as well as a relation between period and mean density of the star hence enabling astronomers to gauge the distances of such stars from the earth.
Our very own pole star or Polaris belongs to the class of Variable Stars, accurately, it is part of the Cepheid variables, a class of pulsating stars that swell and shrink extremely regularly. Generally in each subgroup of the class, a fixed relation holds between period and absolute magnitude, as well as a relation between period and mean density of the star hence enabling astronomers to gauge the distances of such stars from the earth.
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