S Doradus facts for kids

S Doradus is a super huge and super bright star called a blue hypergiant. You can find it far away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a small galaxy near our own Milky Way.

This amazing star is one of the brightest stars we know! It can shine more than a million times brighter than our own Sun. It's also incredibly big, about 380 times wider than the Sun during its biggest outbursts.

What Makes S Doradus Special?

S Doradus is a type of star known as a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV). These stars are very rare and change their brightness over time. S Doradus doesn't just shine steadily; it has big changes in how bright it is.

How S Doradus Changes

S Doradus can get very hot, but its temperature can drop to less than 7,000 degrees Kelvin during its huge eruptions. These eruptions are not like volcanoes on Earth. Instead, they are times when the star throws off a lot of its outer layers, making it appear much brighter and larger.

Brightness Swings

The brightness of S Doradus changes slowly over many years. Sometimes it gets much dimmer, like in 2011 when it reached a very low point. Then, it slowly gets brighter again. Scientists use something called a "light curve" to track these changes. A light curve is just a graph that shows how bright a star is over time.

This graph shows how S Doradus's brightness changed from 1987 to 2016. You can see the big dip in 2011!

This graph zooms in on the light changes from 2012 to 2016, showing smaller ups and downs as the star got brighter after 2011.

These changes are part of what makes S Doradus so interesting to study. It helps scientists understand how these giant stars live and change over their long lives.

Images for kids

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  The Large Magellanic Cloud. NGC 1910 is marked near the middle, and S Doradus is easy to see at its full size. (Credit: Robert Gendler/ESO)

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  This diagram shows where S Doradus fits among other stars, highlighting its changing states.

See also

In Spanish: S Doradus para niños