BETA CETI

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

BETA CETI

AN HABITUALLY ILL-BEHAVED . STAR

Observations . made at Harvard and elsewhere early in March of the star Beta Ceti,' which was reported to have flared up suddenly to several times its size, make it' seem unlikely that any thing very sensational has really happened to that star, Dr. Henry Norris Eussell, of Princeton, said to a "New York Times", reporter. "There ars a number of stars'which are known to vary irregularly, and this seems to be one of them,"said Professor Russell, who has recently received the Draper Medal and tjhe medal of the British Koyal Astronomical Society for his researches. ■ . ■ . •

"Betelgeuse,..the giant star that ,was measured a year or two ago, J3 sometimes twice as bright as at other times. Nothing is known as: to the reason for thees charges. In the case of Beta Coti, there is nothing unusual about its spectrum, nothing that would ordinarily put it in the class of irregular stars. "It is very difficult to determine the amount of increase in brightness in Beta Ceti, because it is a very faint star. The amount of increase has to be estimated by the eye and a good deal depends on the observer. The changes in a.bright star can be much more accurately estimated.

The change in Beta Ceti, whether great or moderate, is not necessarily of sudden occurrence. It is apparently much brighter now than it was some years ago, but it is not known that any one has studied it carefully in recent years, and this change which is now noted may have been in progress for some time." ■' ■

Dr. Russell said that it was apparently not a case of a normally well-be-haved star "running wild," but of the detection of a prank in a star which has habitually "ill-behaved."