Beta Camelopardalis is the brightest

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

in the northern

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 first constellati ...

of Camelopardalis. Its name is a

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

that is Latinised from β Camelopardalis, and abbreviated Beta Cam or β Cam. This star is bright enough to be faintly 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 magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...

, having an apparent visual magnitude of 4.02. Based upon an annual parallax shift of as seen from Earth, it is located at a distance of approximately from the Sun. It is moving closer with a radial velocity of −1.90 km/s and is most likely a single star. This is a yellow-hued G-type supergiant/ bright giant 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 gratin ...

of G1 Ib–IIa. It is an estimated 60 million years old and is spinning with a

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 bu ...

of 11.7 km/s. This is an unusually high rate of rotation for an evolved star of this type. One possible explanation is that it may have engulfed a nearby giant planet, such as a

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter (i.e. Jupiter analogue, Jupiter analogues) but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to t ...

. Beta Camelopardalis has 6.5 times the mass of the Sun and has expanded to around 58 the Sun's radius. The star is radiating 1,592 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged

photosphere The photosphere is a star's outer shell from which light is radiated. It extends into a star's surface until the plasma becomes opaque, equivalent to an optical depth of approximately , or equivalently, a depth from which 50% of light will esc ...

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 . It is a source of X-ray emission. β Cam has two visual companions: a 7th-magnitude A5-class star at an angular separation of 84

arcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (abbreviated as arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of a degree. Since one degree is of a turn, or complete rotation, one arcminute is of a tu ...

s; and a 12th-magnitude star at 15 arcseconds.

References

External links

HR 1603

CCDM J05034+6026

Image Beta Camelopardalis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beta Camelopardalis G-type supergiants G-type bright giants Double stars Camelopardalis Camelopardalis, Beta 1603 BD+60 0856 Camelopardalis, 10 031910 023522