Del

Its story

Delta Ceti is a blue-white type B star suspended some 650 light-years away, in the body of the cosmic Whale. It belongs to the Beta Cephei variables: its surface pulses rhythmically, swelling and shrinking on cycles of hours —a stellar mechanism astronomers use as a seismograph to probe the interiors of massive stars. Nearby lurks the dim glow of Mira, the first variable star ever recognised.