An irregular variable is a type of

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

in which variations in brightness show no regular

periodicity Periodicity or periodic may refer to: Mathematics * Bott periodicity theorem, addresses Bott periodicity: a modulo-8 recurrence relation in the homotopy groups of classical groups * Periodic function, a function whose output contains values tha ...

. There are two main sub-types of irregular variable: eruptive and pulsating. Eruptive irregular variables are divided into three categories: * Group I variables are split into subgroups IA (spectral types O to A) and IB (spectral types F through M). *

Orion variables An Orion variable is a variable star which exhibits irregular and eruptive variations in its luminosity and is typically associated with diffuse nebulae. It is thought that these are young stars which will later become regular, non-variable stars ...

, GCVS type IN (irregular and nebulous), indigenous to star-forming regions, may vary by several magnitudes with rapid changes of up to 1 magnitude in 1 to 10 days, are similarly divided by spectral type into subgroups INA and INB, but with the addition of another subgroup, INT, for

T Tauri stars T Tauri stars (TTS) are a class of variable stars that are less than about ten million years old. This class is named after the prototype, T Tauri, a young star in the Taurus star-forming region. They are found near molecular clouds and iden ...

, or INT(YY) for YY Orionis stars. * The third category of eruptive irregulars are the IS stars, which show rapid variations of 0.5 to 1 magnitude in a few hours or days; again, these come in subgroups ISA and ISB. Pulsating irregular giants or supergiants, called

slow irregular variable A slow irregular variable (ascribed the GCVS types L, LB and LC) is a variable star that exhibit no or very poorly defined periodicity in their slowly changing light emissions. These stars have often been little-studied, and once more is learnt a ...

s, are all of late spectral types (K, M, C, or S), and classed as type L-LB for giants and LC for supergiants. How many of these are actually semi-regular variables that simply need more study, remains unclear.

References

{{var-star-stub