Mira
Mira, also known as Omicron Ceti, is an older variable red giant star. Despite being a giant, it has the mass of a typical main sequence star, and varies in size and brightness over a period of 332 standard days shedding massive amounts of material into space.
What makes this star even more peculiar is its speed - traveling at 130 km/s, it moves so fast through interstellar space that it's leaving a tail behind. All the cast off material builds up on the leading side, creating a bow shock in the front, where sloughed off gas is compressed as it encounters the interstellar winds. The compression causes the gas to heat up and blaze in the ultraviolet spectrum. This material then swirls around behind the star, creating a turbulent, 13 light years long tail-like wake, resembling a gigantic comet.
Name
The name "Mira" is of human origin and means "wonderful".
Future
The variable AGB (asymptotic branch star) is reaching the final stages prior to losing its outer layers as a planetary nebula. Like most red giants, eventually Mira will run out of material, and settle down as a white dwarf star. It has already cast off huge volumes of gas, which is being accreted by its more distant binary companion. The binary companion, also a white dwarf, has occasional outbursts as material is accreted to its surface.
