The history of the discovery of variable stars

Around 1600 AD, people first discovered that the luminosity of certain stars would change. In 1572 AD and 1604 AD, supernovae appeared in the sky respectively. In 1592 AD, David Fabricius discovered that the star O Ceti disappeared periodically. After that, the star was called Mira (Latin, meaning incredible star). These discoveries all prove that the world of stars is not like what Aristotle and some ancient philosophers said-the stars are eternal and unchanging. In this environment, the discovery of variable stars led to a revolution in astronomy in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

Algol was discovered by Geminiano Montanari in 1669 AD.

By 1786 AD, 12 stars were known to be variable stars.

From 1850 to 1784, John Goodricke first discovered the changing characteristics of variable stars. The number of variable stars discovered after 1850 increased rapidly, especially in 1890 when photography was applied to the discovery of variable stars.

In the General Catalog of Variable Stars (2003), the number of variable stars in our galaxy is close to 40,000, and there are also 10,000 and more than 10,000 in other galaxies. It is suspected to be a variable star.