Star
The second-brightest star in the night sky, a yellow-white supergiant used for spacecraft navigation.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 310 ly |
| Diameter | 98,789,400 km |
| Mass | 1.69 × 10³¹ kg |
| Temperature | 7,247°C |
| Apparent magnitude | -0.74 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Southern |
| 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 98,789,400 km across, Canopus is 71 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 8.5 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Canopus tonight left it around 310 years ago.
Its surface sits at 7,520 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