P Cygni

560000-900000 L ☉

P Cygni is a luminous Strong Blue Variable in the constellation Cygnus. Until the 17th century he was unknown. P Cygni was first observed on August 18, 1600 by Willem Blaeu, a Dutch astronomer, mathematician and cartographer. For six years the star has then become darker and darker to the naked eye until you could no longer see him in 1626. From 1655 to 1662 he was again visible. By 1715, the brightness of P Cygni fluctuated over again. Over time he gained its present brightness of 4.8 ± 0.5 like. P Cygni is about 6,000 to 7,000 light -years from Earth remote Hyper giant of spectral type B2 Ia. He is one of the brightest stars in our Milky Way. The determination of the exact distance is difficult because its parallax is only 0.52 thousandths of arcsec ( Hipparcos measurement).

Due to its sudden brightness fluctuations P Cygni was also often referred to as a "permanent Nova ", with its actual behavior but does not match the behavior of a real Nova.

Luminous Blue Variable P Cygni as are very rare and have only a short life. They are also found only in parts of galaxies where intense star formation processes happen. Due to its mass ( ~ 50 solar masses ) and the intense energy release (ten thousand times brighter than our sun) the nuclear fuel of the LBV is exhausted quickly. After a few million years ago, the lives of these star ends in a supernova. The supernova SN 2006gy was probably the end of an LBV - like star P Cygni.

Left

Swell

  • Individual star fifth size and darker
  • Swan ( constellation )
  • Variable star
  • LBV
Declination Color index Astrometry Radial velocity Light-year Intrinsic brightness Proper motion Durchmusterung Bright Star Catalogue Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Star Catalog Hypergiant Minute of arc#Symbols and abbreviations Galaxy
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