World: the variable star with a tail and spiral cloud

In 1617, 53- year-old pastor, David Fabricius frislandsky was killed in a church. His Prishib shovel man, whom he accused of stealing a goose. A sad end for someone who has done a great astronomical discovery - found a variable star Mira.

Peace is not only destroyed the cherished notions about the constancy of the Universe ( to the dismay of Catholic theologians ), but subsequently proved to be the first and only star with a tail like a comet. Well, the latest news is that it envelops the mysterious spiral structure.
The pastor, who enjoyed this star, to map the motion of Mercury ( later revealed that it was Jupiter), noted that it disappears, then returns.
The discovery, as is often the custom, had been forgotten. Only in the middle of XVII century, the star drew the attention of the Polish astronomer Hevelius, who gave her the name of Peace, which is Latin for ... This became known Frenchman Ismael Bouillaud. He spent the careful measurements and found that the brightness variations occur regularly worlds - with a periodicity of 333 days.
These findings shocked the theologians, who interpret literally the words of Aristotle that the region of stars is eternal and unchangeable. In contrast to supernovae, which shone in the year in 1572 i1604 's, and then went out, Mira returned again and again, as if mocking the Inquisition, most recently, which branded Galileo. Worse than that - variable stars began to open with alarming regularity. In addition, the accumulated information about the celestial sphere that varies.
Bouillaud suggested that one side is much brighter than the other worlds. The real reason found only in the XX century. The atmosphere of this giant star then expands, shrinks, resulting in a brighter it gets, the dimmer. This is due to the fact that the radiation of the star periodically falls into the trap of atmospheric.
Variable stars have acquired great importance for astronomy. One of their species - Cepheids - used to measure distances and is crucial to assess the size of the universe.
And indeed the world continues to surprise. In 2007, the Space Telescope GALEX saw a tail neekometopodobny. As the star passes through the galaxy, its gas is faced with the surrounding gas environment and begins to glow in the ultraviolet range.
More recent observations made by the Space Telescope as ... The spiral may be the result of the star- companion perturbs the gas released by Mira.