Star
The jewel of the Northern Crown, an eclipsing binary surrounded by a dust disk.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 75 ly |
| Diameter | 4,174,200 km |
| Mass | 5.13 × 10³⁰ kg |
| Temperature | 9,427°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 2.23 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Northern |
| Discovered | 150 |
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 4,174,200 km across, Alphecca is 3.0 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 2.6 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Alphecca tonight left it around 75 years ago.
Its surface sits at 9,700 K, hotter than the Sun at 5,772 K, which is what sets its colour.
It has been on record since the year 150.
Play today's Cosmodle