U Sagittarii is a

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 ...

in the southern constellation of Sagittarius, abbreviated U Sgr. It is a

classical Cepheid variable Classical Cepheids (also known as Population I Cepheids, Type I Cepheids, or Delta Cepheid variables) are a type of Cepheid variable star. They are population I variable stars that exhibit regular radial pulsations with periods of a few days to a ...

that ranges in brightness from 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 6.28 down to 7.15, with a pulsation period of 6.745226 days. At its brightest, this star is dimly visible to the naked eye. The distance to this star is approximately 2,080 light years based on parallax measurements, and it is drifting further away with a radial velocity of 2 km/s. USgrLightCurve

The variability of this star was announced by J. Schmidt in 1866, who found a preliminary period of 6.74784 days. It was later determined to be a variable of the Cepheid type. In 1925, P. Doig assumed that the star is a member of the

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, an ...

Messier 25 Messier 25, also known as IC 4725, is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. The first recorded observation of this cluster was made by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and it was included in Charles Messier ...

(M25), but actual evidence of its membership would not be available until 1932 when P. Hayford made radial velocity measurements of the cluster. Membership in this cluster is now reasonably established, and as such this Cepheid serves as one of the anchors for the cosmic distance scale since the distance to the cluster can be determined independently from the star. 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 ...

G-type

supergiant star Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with absolute visual magnitudes between about −3 and −8. The temperature range of supergiant stars s ...

with a typical stellar classification of G1Ib. It appears to be making its third traversal of the

instability strip The unqualified term instability strip usually refers to a region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram largely occupied by several related classes of pulsating variable stars: Delta Scuti variables, SX Phoenicis variables, and rapidly oscillat ...

with its period changing at the rate of . Elemental abundances are similar to those in the Sun. It has an estimated 6.6 times the mass of the Sun and 56 times the Sun's radius. The star is radiating over 4,000 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,802 K.

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Further reading