RR Lyrae variable
Sign in to savetype of variable star
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- pulsating variable star
- Named after
- RR Lyrae
Show 6 more facts
- topic's main category
- Category:RR Lyrae variables
- discoverer or inventor
- Solon Irving Bailey
- time of discovery or invention
- 1895-01-01
- site of astronomical discovery
- Harvard College Observatory
- Commons category
- RR Lyrae variables
- catalog code
- RRLYR
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Encyclopedic overview
The RR Lyrae variable stars fall in a particular area on a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram of color versus brightness.
RR Lyrae variables are periodic variable stars, commonly found in globular clusters and other old stellar populations in galaxies. They are used as standard candles to measure (extra) galactic distances, assisting with the cosmic distance ladder. This class is named after the prototype and brightest example, RR Lyrae.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “RR Lyrae variable” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.