20 SUPER-GIANT STARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18632, 16 February 1935, Page 13

20 SUPER-GIANT STARS

found by infra-red

PLATES

PITTSBURGH. Dec. .'ll

Detection of a class of 20 supergiant stars 'by use of ,iiifra-red photographic plates which ‘‘see” heat was reported to the .American Association for the Advancement of .Science today.

The discovery indicate* that the heavens are probably inhabited by large numbers of dully gloving, gigantic suns, whose size the eye and ordinary photography have missed.

All 20 stars have been known many years, but their ordinary visible light gave no indication of tuiusual size. All are “long-period variables,’ ’ stars whose visible light waxes and wanes over periods of several months.

The reason for this flaring-up us unknown. One explanation has been “instability/’ some internal commotion which causes them to pulsate. The discovery that 20 of them are also giants only deepens the mystery. Tor their infra-red rays do not pulsate nearly as much as the visible. Jn this respect they resemble vast invisible balls with lighthouses that flash alternately bright and dim. The study was reported by Charles Ilotzler, of the Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh. He observed only a few of the known variable stars. There are thousands.