Star
A hot blue-white star and the brightest in Musca, pulsating slightly as a Beta Cephei variable.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 315 ly |
| Diameter | 6,684,860 km |
| Mass | 1.75 × 10³¹ kg |
| Temperature | 21,127°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 2.69 |
| 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 6,684,860 km across, Alpha Muscae is 4.8 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 8.8 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Alpha Muscae tonight left it around 315 years ago.
Its surface sits at 21,400 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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