Gaia essay 45: RR Lyrae variables (Michael Perryman, 8 November 2021)

This text focuses on RR Lyrae variables, a specific type of pulsating star found primarily in globular clusters and other ancient stellar populations. It explains their characteristics, including their location on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, their pulsation periods, and their two main subgroups (RRab and RRc). The text highlights the importance of RR Lyrae stars as standard candles for measuring astronomical distances, particularly within the Milky Way and Local Group. Finally, it emphasises the significant contribution of the Gaia mission in identifying and characterising a vastly increased number of these variable stars, enabling numerous studies on galactic structure, kinematics, and tidal streams.

This audio conversation has been created from the original essay (www.michaelperryman.co.uk) using the AI conversion provided by Google NotebookLM, April 2025. Animation: artist impression of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, based on data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope (ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Stefan Payne-Wardenaar, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Видео Gaia essay 45: RR Lyrae variables (Michael Perryman, 8 November 2021) канала Gaia Essays