Mira

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/mira

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the system designation?Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti)
2. What is the component stars?Mira A (pulsating red giant) and Mira B (white dwarf)
3. What is Mira and why does it twinkle?Mira is a pair of stars: a huge red giant and a tiny white dwarf. The red giant expands and contracts every 332 days, making the star look brighter and dimmer like a twinkle.
4. Why does Mira change its brightness?When the red giant expands, it cools and becomes dimmer. When it contracts, it heats up and glows brighter.

Binary Star System: A system of two stars gravitationally bound and orbiting a common center of mass.
Red Giant: A star that has expanded significantly in size and cooled in surface temperature during its late evolutionary stages.
White Dwarf: The dense, compact remnant core of a low-to-intermediate mass star after it has exhausted its nuclear fuel.
Period-Luminosity Relation: An empirical relationship between the pulsation period of a variable star and its intrinsic luminosity.