ι Reticuli, Latinized as Iota Reticuli, is a solitary, orange-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 southern

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 Reticulum. It is faintly visible to the naked eye, having a combined apparent visual magnitude of +4.97. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 10.22

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 ( ...

as seen from Earth, it is located around 319

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. At present it is receding from the Sun with a

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 +61 km/s, having come closest to the Sun 883,000 years ago at a distance of 212 light years. Iota Reticuli is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 80.9 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 12,300 and 25,100 light years from the center of the Galaxy. This is an evolved K-type giant star 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 K4 III. Having exhausted the supply of hydrogen at its core, the star cooled and expanded off 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 ...

; at present it has 24 times the girth of the Sun. It is radiating 180 times the luminosity of the Sun from its swollen

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 4,290 K.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iota Reticuli K-type giants Reticuli, Iota Reticulum Durchmusterung objects 025728 018772

1266 Year 1266 ( MCCLXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 2 – Siege of Murcia: King James I of Aragon (the Conqueror) marches with h ...