R Coronae Borealis star

[¦är kə¦rō‚nē ‚bȯr·ē′al·əs ‚stär]

(astrophysics)

A rare type of irregular variable star which has long periods of maximum brightness followed by a sudden, unpredictable reduction in brightness of several magnitudes, and a slower, sometimes erratic return to the original brightness.

References in periodicals archive ?

Recently astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer to map two large, infrared-emitting smoke clouds as close as 30 astronomical units from RY Sagittarii, the second-brightest R Coronae Borealis star in the sky.

Stars that smoke

They used the Spitzer Space Telescope to take infrared spectra of R Coronae Borealis stars to look for buckyballs in their chemical make-up.

Buckyballs, largest known molecules in space, more common than thought

The stellar classes discussed in detail at the conference include R Coronae Borealis stars, extreme helium stars, Wolf-Rayet central stars of planetary nebulae, white dwarfs, and helium-rich subdwarf O and B stars.