Shattering Shapley’s Universe
Exactly a century ago, on the night of October 5/6, 1923, Edwin Hubble’s photographic observations of a Cepheid variable settled the vexing question of the day: Our Milky Way is not the entire universe.
July 16, 2010: An observing campaign is being carried out on M31_V1, the first variable star discovered in M31 by Edwin Hubble. The Hubble Heritage Team, with Dr. Keith Noll, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), as Principal Investigator, plans to observe M31_V1 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and needs to know the phase of this Cepheid variable. Although basic parameters are known for this star, no recent photometry exists, so observations are required to generate current phase information.