What is a variable star?

Many stars are not constant

When you go out under a starry sky, the stars seem unchanging, eternal, constant. Occasionally you might see a nova or a supernova – apparently “new” stars – but such events usually last only weeks before fading from view, and they are rare (especially supernovae). Apart from those transient reminders that the universe is restless and constantly changing, the stars in the night sky seem to shine with a steady, unwavering light. But many stars are not constant. Their brightness varies over time. We classify a star as a variable star if its light, as seen from the Earth, changes in brightness. A variable star is one that’s known to dim and then brighten again.

Variable stars aren’t rare or unusual. According to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), astronomers had identified more than 1 million variable stars. It’s not uncommon for amateur astronomers to make interesting and useful scientific discoveries about variable stars. You might wish to join them!

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Most stars fluctuate in brightness

Most stars have at least some variation in luminosity: our own sun, for example, varies in brightness by a small amount (about 1%) over the course of its 11-year cycle. But unless the fluctuation is large enough to be seen from Earth, the star isn’t classified as variable.

The changes in brightness of variable stars aren’t generally noticeable to the unaided eye, even if the brightness does change over short timescales (say, hours). To observe most variable stars, you need to monitor the brightness of the star carefully over extended periods of time. But there are examples of stars whose brightness has noticeably faded, over short timescales.

The dramatic dimming of Betelgeuse

A famous recent example is the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion the Hunter. Betelgeuse is one of our sky’s brightest stars. It’s a prominent star, in a noticeable constellation. And there was a worldwide outcry, when, in late 2019, Betelgeuse suddenly began to dim. By February 2020, Betelgeuse was only half as bright as before.

Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its life. Many are aware that – within the next 100,000 years (soon, from an astronomical perspective) – Betelgeuse might explode as a supernova. Could the dimming be a sign Betelgeuse was about to explode?

In the end, Betelgeuse did not explode, and its brightness has now returned to normal. Why did it suddenly dim? Astronomers concluded that the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse literally blew its top in 2019. Betelgeuse lost a substantial part of its visible surface, causing a dust cloud to form and dimming the star as seen from Earth. Betelgeuse is still recovering from that outburst.

Will Betelgeuse fade noticeably again? It might, but it’s not possible to predict exactly when.

Do all variable stars brighten and dim due to obscuring clouds of gas? No. There’s more than one reason for a star to change its brightness. That’s why it’s helpful to divide variable stars into categories.

Intrinsic variables, like Cepheids

Intrinsic variable stars change in brightness due to events happening within the star itself.

Cepheid variables are the most important of this type. These stars are pulsating variable stars. They literally pulse: get bigger and then smaller in size. As they expand and contract, their brightness changes.

Cepheid variables are named for the first known example of the type, the star Delta Cephei, discovered to be variable in 1874.

It wasn’t until 1908 that astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered a direct relationship between the rate at which a Cepheid fluctuates in brightness and its luminosity or absolute brightness. A street light will appear dimmer as you move farther from it. Likewise, more distant stars appear dimmer than closer stars, assuming both have the same absolute brightness. And that’s why Cepheids are useful. If you see a Cepheid brightening and dimming at a certain rate, you know its true brightness. So you can see how bright it looks and thereby determine its distance.

Cepheid variables are powerful tools in astronomy. They were an early stepping stone in the establishment of the cosmic distance ladder that now enables astronomers to estimate distances to objects hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of light-years away.

Read more about the cosmic distance ladder: Meet Delta Cephei, a famous variable star

Henrietta Swan Leavitt died #OTD in 1921. One of the famous « Harvard computers », she discovered the period-luminosity relation of Cepheid variable stars, providing a vital ladder on the cosmological distance scale.https://t.co/7MtUIPoTga pic.twitter.com/tvyX0w40pD

— François Levrier (@FrancoisLevrier) December 12, 2021

Cataclysmic variables and novae

Cataclysmic variable stars are also intrinsic variable stars, but have a different cause for their brightness fluctuations. These aren’t single stars getting bigger and then smaller in size. They are two stars, orbiting close to each other: a binary star system. The star whose brightness fluctuates is a white dwarf, an evolved and compact star. The other star is likely to be more ordinary, except for its closeness to the white dwarf. This closeness means that white dwarf’s gravity deforms the shape of the second star, pulling material off it and forming an accretion disk around the white dwarf. Strong emissions in X-ray and ultraviolet light often betray this disk’s presence.

As the accretion disk material falls onto its surface, the white dwarf accumulates material from the second, donor star. Once the amount of material falling onto its surface reaches a critical point, runaway nuclear fusion reactions take place around the star. They cause a dramatic brightening of the star, sometimes becoming visible to the unaided eye as a “new” star. Indeed, some single cataclysmic variable events are also called novae, from the Latin word meaning new. Once this conversion has taken place, the fusion reactions end and the star dims to its former brightness.

If enough mass collects, however, this kind of situation would cause huge thermonuclear explosions that blow the white dwarf apart. They destroy the star, which then becomes known as a Type Ia supernova.

Other sorts of intrinsic variables

In addition to the Delta Cepheids, there are approximately 30 sub-groups within the intrinsic variable classification. They differ from one another in the speed of the star’s pulsations, and also its age, type, metallicity and several other factors.

Thus we have RR Lyrae variables, long-period variables and Mira variables. All of them vary due to internal changes within the stars themselves.

Extrinsic variables

Extrinsic variable stars have brightness fluctuations due to external factors. Again, there are many different types, but they break down into two main groups: eclipsing binaries and rotating variables.

Eclipsing binaries are systems containing two orbiting stars. As seen from the Earth, one star passes in front of the other, causing the eclipsed star’s brightness to fluctuate regularly. A famous example of this type of variable is Algol in the constellation Perseus. Another group of eclipsing variable stars is the W Ursae Majoris variables, where binary stars are situated so close to each other that they whip around each other in less than a day, and the surfaces of the two stars are so close that they are nearly touching!

Rotating variables, on the other hand, are variable stars where the brightness fluctuates due to phenomena associated with their rotation. There are many kinds of rotating variables, for example stars with huge sunspots on their surface which, as these rotate into view of the Earth, block and dim the light from the star.

What is a variable star?

The study of variable stars can reveal much about the nature, history and future of stars. There are many astronomers – both amateur and professional – who study them. And organizations such as the AAVSO serve as collectors and collators of variable star observations.

Variable stars show that you don’t always need sophisticated and expensive technology to do useful and valuable science. On a base level, all you need is your eyes, although telescopes and equipment can more precisely measure the brightness of a star. But all you really need is the ability to estimate the brightness of a star by comparing it to that of others. This is an acquired skill that comes from practice.

If you wish to become a variable-star observer, visit the AAVSO.

Read more about types of variable stars from Australian Telescope National Facility

Read more: Milky Way’s farthest stars reach halfway to Andromeda

Bottom line: A variable star is one whose brightness changes regularly. Here we discuss the different kinds of variable stars and what causes their brightness variations.