Mira Mirabilis

The Mount Wilson Observatory announced that it had completed measurement of the variable star Mira and found it to be, by angular measurement, .06 of a second of arc -- about 25% larger than Betelgeuse. It is believed to be about 165 light years distant, which makes its diameter about 250,000,000 miles. Only one larger star, Antares, has been measured.* Therefore, if the centre of Mira were where the center of our Sun is, the orbit of the Earth would be some 25,000,000 miles inside the surface of Mira.

The star Mira was discovered to vary in intensity by the astronomer Fabricus in 1596. It is a deep red color and fluctuates in periods of eleven months --is sometimes 200 times brighter at maximum than at minimum light. Mira has a companion star very close to it, which was discovered at Lick Observatory in 1923.

*Diameter 400,000,000 miles.