Look to the stars

[faceless]

Astronomers discover star with a tail 13 light years long
By NIALL FIRTH
16th August 2007

This incredible picture shows a star with an unusual trait - a glowing, comet-like tail which extends an incredible 13 light years back into space. The star itself, called Mira, is about 350 light years from Earth. As the star hurtles through space its tail is shedding carbon, oxygen and other important elements needed to form new stars, planets and possibly even life. Scientists believe that the tail, which is only visible in ultraviolet light, could provide crucial clues about the star's history over the past 30,000 years.

The streak was spotted by NASA's space telescope Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) as part of a survey of the ultraviolet spectrum of the sky which began in 2003 and is expected to be completed later this year, the science journal Nature reported. One of the astronomers who first discovered the tail, Californian astronomer Mark Seibert, said that he believes many other stars also have similar tails - they just have not been spotted yet.

The Hubble telescope had missed this crucial aspect of the star because it had either been looking in the wrong wavelength of light or had been studying only the star itself, rather than the surrounding area. Seibert said that by studying Mira's tail scientists will be able to find out more about the chemical formation of the galaxy.

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13 light years worth of destruction left in its wake? That has to be admired!

[major.tom]

For any rocket scientists out there, there's more info on Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira

Also, mouse over the image below to see where you can find it in the sky...