Star
A blue-white binary and the brightest star in Dorado, whose primary is a giant three and a half times the radius of the Sun.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 169 ly |
| Diameter | 4,874,380 km |
| Mass | 6.62 × 10³⁰ kg |
| Temperature | 11,315°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 3.27 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Southern |
| Discovered | 1597 |
Stars spend most of their lives fusing hydrogen into helium in their core, and it's the balance between that outward pressure and gravity pulling inward that fixes how big and how bright a star gets.
At 4,874,380 km across, Alpha Doradus is 3.5 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 3.3 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Alpha Doradus tonight left it around 169 years ago.
Its surface sits at 11,588 K, hotter than the Sun at 5,772 K, which is what sets its colour.
It has been on record since 1597.
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