μ Hydrae, Latinised as Mu Hydrae, is a solitary,
[ orange-hued star in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It is visible to the naked eye with an ]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 3.83.[ Positioned just 1.8° to the south-southwest is the ]planetary nebula
A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.
The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelate ...
NGC 3242.[ Mu Hydrae has an annual parallax shift of 13.93 mas,][ which yields a distance estimate of 234 light years.
This is 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 ...
K-type giant star
A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moore, New York: Oxford University Press ...
with a stellar classification of K4 III,[ having used up its core ]hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...
and has expanded to around 45 times the radius of the Sun
Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3:
:1\,R_ = 6.957\t ...
.[ It is a suspected ]variable star
A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...
, with a brightness that varies about 0.03 in magnitude.[ The relatively cool outer atmosphere has an effective temperature of 3999 K.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mu Hydrae
K-type giants
Suspected variables
Hydra (constellation)
Hydrae, Mu
Durchmusterung objects
Hydrae, 42
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