Delta Muscae, Latinized from δ Muscae, often catalogued as HD 112985, is a

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 ...

star system and the closest to the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

in the southern hemisphere

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 ...

Musca Musca () is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. It was one of 12 constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, and it first appeared on a celestial globe in dia ...

(the

Fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

) at a distance of approximately 27.8 parsecs (91.0

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). The main star is classified as a giant star with an orange tint. It is one of the stars given a

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. ...

by astronomer

Johann Bayer Johann Bayer (1572 – 7 March 1625) was a German lawyer and uranographer (celestial cartographer). He was born in Rain, Lower Bavaria, in 1572. At twenty, in 1592 he began his study of philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, a ...

. It was recorded in Bayer's 1603 publication '' Uranometria''. In addition it is one of the main stars used in the visual formation of the Musca constellation.

Distance and visibility

Based on research done by the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

for the Hipparcos Star Catalogue, Delta Muscae exhibits a

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 ...

of 35.91 milliarcseconds. With this data, it can be calculated that Delta Muscae is situated at a distance of 27.8 parsecs, or 91.0

s, from the sun. Even though Delta Muscae is the closest star to Earth in the Musca constellation, nearly 3800 stars are closer in proximity to the Earth as stated by the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars, which includes stars within twenty-five parsecs of the Sun. Delta Muscae is a star of the third magnitude (or 3.61(v) to be exact) when viewed from the

, and is visible to the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...

in regions that lack dense

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...

Stellar and system characteristics

Delta Muscae has a listed spectral type of K2III. The K2 portion of this designation specifies that Delta Muscae A is a class K2 star, meaning the light it emits is orange in color. The main star burns at a temperature cooler than the Sun, which is a G2 star. The second part of the classification, III, specifies that Delta Muscae is a giant star which has already left the

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 ...

of star life like the Sun.

References

External links

NASA Exoplanet Archive results: HD 112985Del Mus Image
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delta Muscae K-type giants Spectroscopic binaries Musca (constellation) Musca, Delta Durchmusterung objects 112985 063613

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