Delta Ceti, Latinized from δ Ceti, is a single, blue-white hued

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

in the equatorial

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 ...

Cetus Cetus () is a constellation, sometimes called 'the whale' in English. The Cetus (mythology), Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology which both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water- ...

. The star's

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 +4.06 means it is near to the cusp of the faintest third of the stars that are visible the ideally-placed naked eye. It is north of the

celestial equator The celestial equator is the great circle of the imaginary celestial sphere on the same plane as the equator of Earth. This plane of reference bases the equatorial coordinate system. In other words, the celestial equator is an abstract projectio ...

compared to the

celestial north pole The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers at ...

's . The star is positioned about WNW of the

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''M77, but which at apparent magnitude 9.6 needs magnification to be made out and has an

apparent size The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular distance describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it is ...

of only by . Based upon an annual parallax shift of as seen from Earth, it is around 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 ...

. Motion relative to our system's trajectory includes a highly parting vector: with a net

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the temporal rate of change, rate of change of the distance or Slant range, range between the two points. It is e ...

of about . It moves minutely across the celestial sphere – yet just over four times more in

right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth. When paired w ...

than in

declination In astronomy, declination (abbreviated dec; symbol ''δ'') is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declination's angle is measured north or south of the ...

This is a

Beta Cephei variable Beta Cephei variables, also known as Beta Canis Majoris stars, are variable stars that exhibit small rapid variations in their brightness due to pulsations of the stars' surfaces, thought due to the unusual properties of iron at temperatures of 200, ...

with a

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 B2 IV. It varies in brightness with a period of 0.16114 days. Unlike most stars of its type, it does not display multiple periods of luminosity variation or multiple variations of its spectral line profiles. The star is about 7−18 million years and has a low

projected rotational velocity Stellar rotation is the angular motion of a star about its axis. The rate of rotation can be measured from the spectrum of the star, or by timing the movements of active features on the surface. The rotation of a star produces an equatorial bulge ...

of around , suggesting it is either rotating slowly or is being viewed from nearly pole on. It has 8.4 times the

mass of the Sun The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass ...

and 4.6 times the Sun's radius. The star is radiating around 4,000 times the

Sun's luminosity The solar luminosity (), is a unit of radiant flux (power emitted in the form of photons) conventionally used by astronomers to measure the luminosity of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects in terms of the output of the Sun. One nominal ...

from its

photosphere The photosphere is a star's outer shell from which light is radiated. The term itself is derived from Ancient Greek roots, φῶς, φωτός/''phos, photos'' meaning "light" and σφαῖρα/''sphaira'' meaning "sphere", in reference to it ...

at an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

of roughly

Name

This star, along with α Cet (Menkar), λ Cet (Menkar), γ Cet (Kaffaljidhma), μ Cet, ξ¹ Cet and ξ² Cet were ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah'', "the Part of a Hand". According to the catalogue of stars in the ''Technical Memorandum 33-507 - A Reduced Star Catalog Containing 537 Named Stars'', ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah'' were the title for five stars : γ Cet as ''Kaffaljidhma'', ξ¹ Cet as ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah I'', ξ² Cet as ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah II'', δ Cet as ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah III'' and μ Cet as ''Al Kaff al Jidhmah IV'' (exclude α Cet and λ Cet.) In

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, (), meaning '' Circular Celestial Granary'', refers to an asterism consisting of δ Ceti, α Ceti, κ¹ Ceti, λ Ceti, μ Ceti, ξ¹ Ceti, ξ² Ceti, ν Ceti, γ Ceti,

75 Ceti 75 Ceti is a single star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus with at least one planet. It is visible to the naked eye as a dim, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of +5.36. The star is located 271 light years dis ...

70 Ceti 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

63 Ceti 63 Ceti is a star in the constellation of Cetus, located just over a degree south of the celestial equator. With an apparent magnitude of about 5.9, the star is barely visible to the naked eye (see Bortle scale) as a dim, orange-hued po ...

and

66 Ceti 66 may refer to: * 66 (number) * One of the years 66 BC, AD 66, 1966, 2066 * "66" (song), a song by Lil Yachty featuring Trippie Redd *66, a song by The Afghan Whigs, from the album 1965 *Sixty-Six (card game), a German card game * ''Sixty Six ...

. Consequently, the

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often a ...

for δ Ceti itself is (, en, the Ninth Star of Circular Celestial Granary.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Delta Ceti B-type subgiants Beta Cephei variables Ceti, Delta Cetus (constellation) Durchmusterung objects Ceti, 82 016582 012387 0779