Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Wed Oct 31 2018 10:19:23 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2018 October 31 [2] R Leporis: A Vampire's Star Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Martin Pugh [4] Explanation: Better known as Hind's Crimson Star [5] , R Leporis is a rare star in planet Earth's night sky. It's also a shocking shade of red. The star's discoverer, 19th century English astronomer John Russell Hind [6] , reported that it appeared in a telescope "... like a drop of blood on a black field." Located [7] 1,360 light-years away in the constellation Lepus [8] the star is a Mira-type [9] variable, changing its brightness over a period of about 14 months. R Leporis is now recognized as a carbon star [10] , a very cool and highly evolved red giant [11] with an extreme abundance of carbon. Extra carbon in carbon stars is created by helium fusion [12] near the dying stellar core and dredged up into the stars' outer layers. The dredge-up results in an overabundance of simple carbon molecules, like CO, CH, CN, and C2. While it's true [13] that cool stars radiate most of their energy in red and infrared light, the carbon molecules strongly absorb what little blue light is left and give carbon stars an exceptionally deep red color. R Leporis is losing its carbon-rich atmosphere into the surrounding interstellar material through a strong stellar wind though, and could be near the transition to a planetary nebula [14] . Oh, and Happy Halloween [15] from the folks at APOD. Tomorrow's picture: ghost of long-dead star ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [16] | Archive [17] | Submissions [18] | Index [19] | Search [20] | Calendar [21] | RSS [22] | Education [23] | About APOD [24] | Discuss [25] | > [26] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [27] (MTU [28] ) & Jerry Bonnell [29] (UMCP [30] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [31] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [32] A service of: ASD [33] at NASA [34] / GSFC [35] & Michigan Tech. U. [36] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1811/RLeporisMP.jpg [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [4] https://www.martinpughastrophotography.space/ [5] http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/hinds.html [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell_Hind [7] http://simbad.harvard.edu/simbad/ sim-basic?Ident=R+Lep&submit=SIMBAD+search [8] https://oneminuteastronomer.com/1206/vampire-star/ [9] ap060722.html [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_star [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-alpha_process [13] https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/ hubble-views-striking-carbon-star-in-colorful-cluster [14] ap181020.html [15] ap161030.html [16] ap181030.html [17] archivepix.html [18] lib/apsubmit2015.html [19] lib/aptree.html [20] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [21] calendar/allyears.html [22] /apod.rss [23] lib/edlinks.html [24] lib/about_apod.html [25] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181031 [26] ap181101.html [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [28] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [30] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [31] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [32] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [33] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [34] https://www.nasa.gov/ [35] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [36] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .