⭐ Star
Mira
A red giant star racing through space with a tail like a comet.
- Distance
- 350 light-years away
Did you know?
- Its tail is nearly 13 light-years long, made of material blowing off the swollen star.
- It moves at about 130 km every second, and astronomers have studied it for about 400 years.
The life of a starA step in a star’s life: a swollen giant
More NASA photos of MiraStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
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All of deep space
The Sun
Our star, an ordinary one that keeps everything here alive.
Betelgeuse
A red supergiant in Orion that will one day explode.
Alpha Centauri
The closest star system to the Sun.
Eta Carinae
A pair of giant stars, one of them about 90 times heavier than the Sun.
Zeta Ophiuchi
A runaway star, flung out when its partner exploded.
Pistol Star
One of the brightest stars known in our galaxy, hidden behind dust.