The Absolute Magnitudes of the RR Lyrae Stars

Extract

The absolute magnitudes of pulsating variable stars, both RR Lyrae stars and Cepheid variables, may be assessed from observation in three ways: by the classical method of statistical parallaxes, by their occurrence in star clusters whose distance is otherwise known, particularly by ascertaining the position of the main sequence in the HR diagram, and by the Baade-Wesselink method of determining stellar diameters.

As regards the first of these, the method of statistical parallaxes, the RR Lyrae stars lend themselves to this better than do the Cepheid variables, because the velocities relative to the Sun are so much larger. RR Lyrae radial velocities are frequently as high as 200 km/sec or even 300 km/sec, and as many of the stars lie at distances between 1000 and 1500 pc the proper motions of the transverse velocities may be expected to be as high as 0”.050 per annum. And, indeed, many investigations have been made recently, among which one may mention those by Plaut, by van Herk, and by the Royal Greenwich Observatory.