The world is all set for the holiday season and so is outer space. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has shared a festive RS Puppos Image to send in festive cheers from space to the earth and seems like even the stars are celebrating too. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing image of a Christmas star that is adorned with dust and glittering lights. The star, which is located around 6650 light-years away, is referred to as RS Puppos. This star appears to dim and brighten over a six-week period.
The data provided by Hubble indicates that the star’s sonification pitch is determined by its direction from the centre. As the circle moves inward, its points at the top and bottom of the circle are mapped to lower notes, while those at the top are assigned higher ones.
According to Hubble, RS Puppis is a Cepheid variable star, which is luminous and has an intrinsic brightness of more than 15,000 times greater than the Sun. It also appears brighter during the six-week cycle than any other star.
The light from the Cepheid streams across the surface of the Nebula as it passes through the region, producing a light echo. Even though the light travels across space at a speed of light that’s fast enough to momentarily span the gap between the Moon and Earth, the light can still be seen traversing the region.
Through observations of RS Puppis’ light, astronomers were able to determine the exact distance between the star and the light source. They were also able to track the light’s movement across the Nebula. Due to these observations, the distance between the two stars has been reduced to about 6,500 Light-years.