By: Elaine Chumley

Mu Cephei

FormationFormed from exploded

supernovas. Gravity pulls the clouds of gas

and dust together.A collapsing cloud forms a hot

core that’s what starts to develop a star

Herschel's Garnet StarAKA: “Herschel’s Garnet Star" deep red color; Red GiantMost intensely colored stars ever

recorded when viewed through a telescope

HerschelName honers: star's deep color

and Sir William HerschelDiscovered planet Uranus 1781

Mu Cephei

38,000 times brighter than the sun

Light years awayAbsolute visual magnitude: -6.7

ConstellationLocated in the constellation of

Cepheus:

ComparisonsLarger than the sunIf it replaced our sun, it would

extend as far to Jupiter or Saturn.

Location! Location! Location!Largest to naked eyeBest viewed during August

through January

One of the largest and brightest stars in the known galaxy.

Too far for a good parallax distance calculation.

Approx 2400 light years away.

Unstable and pulsatesSurrounded by warm water vapor

Shell of dust and gas

Death of Mu Cephei Nearing end of lifeCore is fusing helium to carbonIn a few million years the star will

explode as a supernova Stellar black hole

Citations http://www.windows2universe.org

/the_universe/MuCephi.htmlhttp://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/

garnet.htmlSierraStarGazers.orghttp://www.aavso.org/vsots_muce

p