Beta Centauri. Beta Centauri (β Cen, β Centauri) is a star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus. With an apparent visual magnitude of 0.60, it is the second brightest star in the constellation Centaurus and the tenth brightest star in the night sky. It has the traditional names Hadar and Agena. The name Hadar comes from the Arabic حضار (the meaning of the root is "to be present" or "settled, civilized area"[8]), while the name Agena may ultimately be derived from the Latin gena 'knees'. The Chinese name for the star is 马腹一 (Mandarin: mǎ fù yī, the First Star of the Horse's Abdomen).[9] Properties[edit] Based upon parallax measurements from the astrometric Hipparcos satellite,[10][11] the distance to this system is about 350 light-years (110 parsecs).[1] The spectrum matches a star with a stellar classification of B1 III,[4] with the luminosity class of III indicating this is a giant star that has exhausted the hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence.
References[edit] Alpha Centauri. Location of Alpha Centauri in Centaurus (right-click on starmap to enlarge) From Earth to Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri (α Centauri, α Cen; also known as Rigil Kent /ˈraɪdʒəl ˈkɛnt/—see Names) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and the third brightest star in the night sky.[10][11] The Alpha Centauri system is located 1.34 parsecs or 4.37 light years from the Sun, making it the closest star system to the Solar System.[12] Although it appears to the unaided eye as a single object, Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system (designated Alpha Centauri AB or α Cen AB) whose combined visual magnitude of −0.27 makes it the third brightest star (other than the Sun) seen from Earth after the −1.46 magnitude Sirius and the −0.72 magnitude Canopus.
Its component stars are named Alpha Centauri A (α Cen A), with 110% of the mass and 151.9% the luminosity of the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B (α Cen B), at 90.7% of the Sun's mass and 44.5% of its luminosity. Centaurus_IAU. Centaurus. Notable features[edit] The constellation Centaurus as it can be seen by the naked eye. Stars[edit] Centaurus contains several very bright stars because of its position in the Milky Way; in addition, its alpha and beta stars are used to find the constellation Crux.
The constellation has 281 stars above magnitude 6.5, meaning that they are visible to the unaided eye, the most of any constellation. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system that contains Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. In addition to Alpha Centauri (the 3rd brightest star in the sky), a second first magnitude star, Beta Centauri, is part of Centaurus. Centaurus also has many dimmer double stars and binary stars. 3 Centauri is a double star with a blue-white hued primary of magnitude 4.6 and a secondary of magnitude 6.1. Centaurus is home to many variable stars.
BPM 37093 is a white dwarf star whose carbon atoms are thought to have formed a crystalline structure. Deep-sky objects[edit] History[edit] Equivalents[edit] Centaurus, Circinus. Chiron’s Secrets. One of the lesser known, yet most spectacular constellations in our southern sky is currently doing the rounds about the south celestial pole for almost the entire evening; the celestial centaur, Chiron a.k.a. Centaurus. His front two hooves are marked by the two “pointers”, the two bright stars that point to the Southern Cross, which used to mark out his back legs (but now is a constellation in its own right).
The furthest away of the two pointers stars to the cross is Alpha Centauri, a triple star system (A, B and Proxima) containing the closest star to our own sun at about 4.3 light years away. Deep within Centaurus however, is the dusty elliptical galaxy, Centaurus A. Image of dust around Centaurus A Close up of the active galactic centre Centaurus A is one of the brightest radio-objects in the sky, probably due to a supermassive black hole at the galactic centre that’s slowly consuming the galaxy. Boomerang Nebula - the coldest place in the universe? Cold White Dwarf.