Abstract
Space photometric missions have been steadily accumulating observations of Cepheids in recent years, leading to a flow of new discoveries. In this short review we summarize the findings provided by the early missions such as WIRE, MOST, and CoRoT, and the recent results of the Kepler and K2 missions. The surprising and fascinating results from the high-precision, quasi-continuous data include the detection of the amplitude increase of Polaris, and exquisite details about V1154 Cyg within the original Kepler field of view. We also briefly discuss the current opportunities with the K2 mission, and the prospects of the TESS space telescope regarding Cepheids.
Highlights
By instinct, Cepheid variables might not seem to be ideal targets for photometric space missions.Their variations are known to be rather simple: they pulsate in one or a few radial p-modes in a rather clockwork-like manner
Space-based photometric telescopes were envisaged for a long time
These observations revealed that Polaris is not switching off and its pulsation amplitude started to increase after reaching a minimum around 2000
Summary
Cepheid variables might not seem to be ideal targets for photometric space missions. Their variations are known to be rather simple: they pulsate in one or a few radial p-modes in a rather clockwork-like manner. They often have long pulsation periods that may extend to several weeks. Long-term ground-based observations can reach very high precision for periodic signals, the per point accuracy of space telescopes is still unmatched. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences
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