Mira B

Alert Notice 358: Monitoring of Mira (omi Cet) in support of HST Observations

September 17, 2007: Dr. Margarita Karovska (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and
collaborators are performing a comprehensive study of the Mira AB interacting system, using the WFPC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. Mira AB is composed of the prototype Mira variable omi Cet and its companion VZ Cet, separated by about 0.5 arcsecond. As part of this project they plan to obtain a large number of high-angular resolution images at wavelengths ranging from UV to optical.  The main objectives of the HST/WFPC2 observations are: