Star
An orange giant and the brightest star in Scutum, a small constellation set against a dense Milky Way star cloud.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 184 ly |
| Diameter | 27,853,600 km |
| Mass | 2.64 × 10³⁰ kg |
| Temperature | 4,042°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 3.85 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Northern |
| Discovered | 1684 |
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 27,853,600 km across, Tianbian is 20 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 1.3 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Tianbian tonight left it around 184 years ago.
Its surface sits at 4,315 K, cooler than the Sun at 5,772 K, which is what sets its colour.
It has been on record since 1684.
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