Beta Aurigae (Latinized from β Aurigae, abbreviated Beta Aur, β Aur), officially named Menkalinan ,
is a
binary star
A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
[ system in the northern ]constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
of Auriga
AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...
. The combined apparent visual magnitude
Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's lig ...
of the system is 1.9,[ making it the second-brightest member of the constellation after ]Capella
Capella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star i ...
. Using the parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...
measurements made during the Hipparcos
''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...
mission, the distance to this star system can be estimated as , give or take a half-light-year margin of error
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the ent ...
.[
In around one million years, Beta Aurigae will become the brightest star in the night sky.][ – based on computations from ]HIPPARCOS
''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial obj ...
data. (The calculations exclude stars whose distance or proper motion
Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...
is uncertain.) tp://tlgleonid.asuscomm.com/HITACHI/BOOK_ASTRO/S&T/SkyandTelescope_1998%20-%20astronomy/04/199804059063.pdf PDF/ref>
Nomenclature
''β Aurigae'' is the star system's Bayer designation
A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...
. The traditional name ''Menkalinan'' is derived from the Arabic منكب ذي العنان ''mankib ðī-l-‘inān'' "shoulder of the rein-holder". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
organized a Working Group on Star Names
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...
(WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ''Menkalinan'' for this star.
It is known as 五車三 (the Third Star of the Five Chariots Five Chariots (五車, pinyin: Wǔ Ju) is a constellation in Chinese astronomy.
Introduction
A five-star Chinese constellation equivalent to Auriga minus δ Aur ( Delta Aurigae). Also known in Japanese as Gosha (Five Chariots; 五車).
Stars
* ...
) in traditional Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twe ...
.
Properties
Beta Aurigae is a binary star system, but it appears as a single star in the night sky. The two stars are metallic-lined subgiant star
A subgiant is a star that is brighter than a normal main-sequence star of the same spectral class, but not as bright as giant stars. The term subgiant is applied both to a particular spectral luminosity class and to a stage in the evolution of ...
s belonging to the A-type stellar classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...
;[ they have roughly the same mass and radius. A-type entities are hot stars that release a blue-white hued light; these two stars burn brighter and with more heat than the ]Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, which is a G2-type main sequence
In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...
star. The pair constitute an eclipsing spectroscopic binary
A binary star is a system of two star, stars that are gravity, gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separa ...
; the combined apparent magnitude
Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...
varies over a period of 3.96 days between +1.89 and +1.94, as every 47.5 hour
An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr) is a unit of time conventionally reckoned as of a day and scientifically reckoned between 3,599 and 3,601 seconds, depending on the speed of Earth's rotation. There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 ho ...
s one of the stars partially eclipse
An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
s the other from Earth's perspective.[ The two stars are designated Aa and Ab in modern catalogues,][ but have also been referred to as components ''1'' and ''2'' or ''A'' and ''B''.]
There is an 11th magnitude optical companion with a separation of as of 2011, but increasing. It is also an A-class subgiant, but is an unrelated background star.[
At an ]angular separation
Angular distance \theta (also known as angular separation, apparent distance, or apparent separation) is the angle between the two sightlines, or between two point objects as viewed from an observer.
Angular distance appears in mathematics (in pa ...
of along a position angle of 155° is a companion star that is 8.5 magnitudes fainter than the primary. It may be the source of the X-ray emission from the vicinity.[ The Beta Aurigae system is believed to be a stream member of the Ursa Major Moving Group.][
]
See also
* Algol
ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...
* Capella
Capella is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Auriga. It has the Bayer designation α Aurigae, which is Latinised to Alpha Aurigae and abbreviated Alpha Aur or α Aur. Capella is the sixth-brightest star i ...
References
External links
Menkalinan
Image Beta Aurigae
CCDM J05596+4457
Catalog
Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beta Aurigae
M-type main-sequence stars
A-type subgiants
Am stars
Algol variables
Triple star systems
Ursa Major Moving Group
Menkalinan
Auriga (constellation)
Aurigae, Beta
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Aurigae, 34
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