India, Sept. 1 -- A recent groundbreaking study led by Professor Anupam Bhardwaj from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) utilized 40 oxygen-rich Mira variable stars located in 18 stellar clusters of our galaxy.
The research team monitored these Mira stars over an extended period, establishing their mean luminosities and pulsation periods. The European Space Agency's Gaia mission played a key role by providing precise geometric distances to these star clusters, which are located between 13,000 and 55,000 light-years from Earth. This allowed for an absolute calibration of the stellar luminosities of the Mira variables, providing a new level of precision.
The resulting "absolute" period-luminosity relationship...