Delta¹ Chamaeleontis, Latinized from δ¹ Chamaeleontis, is a close

double star In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...

located in the

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 ...

Chamaeleon Chamaeleon () is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a kind of lizard. It was first defined in the 16th century. History Chamaeleon was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius fro ...

. It has a 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 5.47, which is just bright enough for the star to be faintly seen on a dark rural night. With an annual parallax shift of 9.36

mas Mas, Más or MAS may refer to: Film and TV * Más y Menos, fictional superhero characters, from the Teen Titans animated television series * Más (Breaking Bad), "Más" (''Breaking Bad''), a season three episode of ''Breaking Bad'' Songs * Más ( ...

, it is located around 350

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s from 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 ...

. This pair is one of two stars named Delta Chamaeleontis, the other being the slightly brighter Delta² Chamaeleontis located about 6

arcminute A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

s away. Delta Chamaeleontis forms the southernmost component of the constellation's "dipper" or bowl. Together with

Gamma Chamaeleontis Gamma Chamaeleontis, Latinized from γ Chamaeleontis, is a solitary star located in the southern circumpolar constellation of Chamaeleon. It can faintly be seen with the naked eye on a dark night, having an apparent visual magnitude of 4.1 ...

, they point to a spot that is within 2° of the south

celestial pole The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's rotation around a fixed axis, axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently dire ...

. The two components of Delta¹ Chamaeleontis have visual magnitudes of 6.3 and 6.5. As of 2000, the pair had 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 0.783

arcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

s along a

position angle In astronomy, position angle (usually abbreviated PA) is the convention for measuring angles on the sky. The International Astronomical Union defines it as the angle measured relative to the north celestial pole (NCP), turning positive into the d ...

of 83.8°. They can be separated by a

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

. The pair is a source of

X-ray emission Astrophysical X-ray sources are astronomical objects with physical properties which result in the emission of X-rays. Several types of astrophysical objects emit X-rays. They include galaxy clusters, black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN), ...

with a flux of . The

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 ...

of Delta¹ Chamaeleontis is K0 III, which matches an

evolved Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

K-type

giant star A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main sequence, main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same effective temperature, surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delta1 Chamaeleontis Chamaeleontis, Delta1 Chamaeleon Chamaeleontis, Delta1 Durchmusterung objects 052595 04231 093779