Star
A blue-white giant and the brightest star in Sculptor, the constellation containing the south galactic pole.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 706 ly |
| Diameter | 10,473,000 km |
| Mass | 9.96 × 10³⁰ kg |
| Temperature | 15,477°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 4.3 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Southern |
| Discovered | 1756 |
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 10,473,000 km across, Alpha Sculptoris is 7.5 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 5.0 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Alpha Sculptoris tonight left it around 706 years ago.
Its surface sits at 15,750 K, hotter than the Sun at 5,772 K, which is what sets its colour.
It has been on record since 1756.
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