December 31, 2013

A picture of the Cepheid variable star RS Puppis taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (Image NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-Hubble/Europe Collaboration Acknowledgment: H. Bond (STScI and Penn State University))

The star RS Puppis was observed during a period of five weeks by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s a Cepheid variable star about 6,500 light years from Earth. Because of its variability, its brightness continuously increases and decreases and these pulsations created a phenomenon known as light echo. In essence, the light emitted by the star seems to reverberate through the nebula that surrounds it, a phenomenon admired by astronomers thanks to Hubble.