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Science 29 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5488, pp. 2255 - 2256
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5488.2255a
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News of the Week

CEPHEID VARIABLES:
Astronomers Measure Size of a Giant's Sighs

Dana Mackenzie

Cepheid variables are giant yellow stars that grow dimmer and brighter over periods of days or weeks. Astronomers have long presumed that the surface layer of a Cepheid variable, called the photosphere, physically expands and contracts to cause this odd behavior. Now, they have caught Zeta Geminorum in the act of swelling and shrinking, making it the first Cepheid that astronomers have actually seen change its size.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)