Beta Cancri
Brightest star in Cancer, an orange giant with a barium-rich spectrum.
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Beta Cancri is the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation of Cancer, visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.5. It bears the proper name Tarf, approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names in 2018, and is notable for hosting an exoplanet, Beta Cancri b, discovered via radial velocity observations.
Quick Facts
- Bayer designation
- β Cancri
- Apparent visual magnitude
- +3.5
- Absolute magnitude
- −1.2
- Distance
- 303 light-years
- Spectral type
- K4III Ba1
- Effective temperature
- 4,094 K
- Planet orbital period
- 605 days
Facts from the source article.
Background
Beta Cancri has the traditional name Al Tarf, meaning 'end' or 'edge' in Arabic, later anglicized as Altarf and then shortened to Tarf by the IAU in 2018. Its Bayer designation is β Cancri, Latinized from the Greek. The star is an orange K-type giant with a stellar classification of K4III Ba1, indicating it is a Barium star with enhanced abundances of barium. At an estimated age of 1.9 billion years, it has 1.7 times the mass of the Sun and has expanded to 52 times the Sun's radius, radiating 677 times the Sun's luminosity from a photosphere at 4,094 K. It is drifting further away from the Solar System with a line-of-sight velocity of 23 km/s.
More in Binary and Multiple Stars
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Beta Cancri (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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