Friday, August 17, 2007

Star with a comet tail


Astronomers have discovered something they've never seen before: a star with a tail like a comet. Even more amazing is the fact that the newfound tail is attached to one of the most popular stars in the sky, a red giant named Mira. Amateur and professional astronomers have been watching Mira for 400 years and only recently has a NASA space telescope spotted its massive tail. The name Mira is from a latin word "wonderful"
Astronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems.This tail consists of carbon,oxygen and other elements as scientists believe.
The fact that Mira's tail only glows with ultraviolet light might explain why other telescopes have missed it except GALEX,the telescope that scan ultraviolet activities in sky

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