Related papers: Polaris and its Kin
Polaris is the nearest and brightest classical Cepheid, and pulsates with a period of about 4 days. It has long been known as a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 30 yr. Historical photometric and spectroscopic…
We present the analysis of 4.5 years of nearly continuous observations of the classical Cepheid Polaris, which comprise the most precise data available for this star. We have made spectroscopic measurements from ground and photometric…
The 30 year orbit of the Cepheid Polaris has been followed with observations by the CHARA Array (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy) from 2016 through 2021. An additional measurement has been made with speckle interferometry at…
Hydrodynamic models of short--period Cepheids were computed to determine the pulsation period as a function of evolutionary time during the first and third crossings of the instability strip. The equations of radiation hydrodynamics and…
Polaris is one of the most observed stars in the night sky, with recorded observations spanning more than 200 years. From these observations, one can study the real-time evolution of Polaris via the secular rate of change of the pulsation…
A recently presented HST/FGS parallax measurement of the Polaris system has been interpreted as evidence for the Cepheid Polaris Aa to be pulsating in the second overtone. An age discrepancy between components A and B has been noted and…
For about 100 years the amplitude of the 4-day pulsation in Polaris has decreased. We present new results showing a significant increase in the amplitude based on 4.5 years of continuous monitoring from the ground and with two satellite…
Polaris, the nearest and brightest classical Cepheid, is a member of at least a triple system. It has a wide ($18''$) physical companion, the F-type dwarf Polaris B. Polaris itself is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an orbital…
Polaris is a highly unusual Cepheid with observed properties that are difficult to reconcile with stellar evolutionary models. Since the initial detection of Polaris' magnetic field in 2020, we have conducted a magnetic monitoring campaign…
Polaris the Cepheid has been observed for centuries, presenting surprises and changing our view of Cepheids and stellar astrophysics, in general. Specifically, understanding Polaris helps anchor the Cepheid Leavitt law, but the distance…
Polaris, the nearest and brightest classical Cepheid, is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 30 years. Using the High Resolution Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)…
A collection of active photometric observations over the last half decade, archival data from the past 120 years, radial velocity observations from 1984, and recent monitoring through a pro-am collaboration reveal that the 9th magnitude F9…
A previously-derived photometric parallax of 10.10+-0.20 mas, d=99+-2 pc, is confirmed for Polaris by a spectroscopic parallax derived using line ratios in high dispersion spectra for the Cepheid. The resulting estimates for the mean…
We investigate temporally changing variability amplitudes and the multi-periodicity of the type-I Cepheid Polaris using 161 high-precision radial velocity (RV) and bisector inverse span (BIS) measurements based on optical spectra recorded…
We present a first results from a long-term program of a radial velocity study of Cepheid Polaris (F7 Ib) aimed to find amplitude and period of pulsations and nature of secondary periodicities. 264 new precise radial velocity measurements…
We present the results of an analysis of 21 spectra of alpha UMi (Polaris) obtained in September - December 2015. Frequency analysis shows an increase of the pulsation period up to 8.6 min in comparison to the 2007 observational set. The…
As part of a program to determine dynamical masses of Cepheids, we have imaged the nearest and brightest Cepheid, Polaris, with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and Wide Field Camera 3. Observations were obtained at…
Observations of the light curve for the 3.7-day Cepheid RT Aur both before and since 1980 indicate that the variable is undergoing an overall period increase, amounting to +0.082 +-0.012 s/yr, rather than a period decrease, as implied by…
The Cepheid Period-Luminosity law is a key rung on the extragalactic distance ladder. However, numerous Cepheids are known to undergo period variations. Monitoring, refining, and understanding these period variations allows us to better…
Polaris is the nearest Cepheid to us and as such holds a special place in our understanding of Cepheids in general and the Leavitt Law. In the past couple of decades, we have learned many new things about the star as a Cepheid and as the…