X Caeli
Binary star system with a Delta Scuti variable primary.
X Caeli, also cataloged as Gamma2 Caeli, is a binary star system found in the southern constellation Caelum. Its combined brightness of magnitude 6.32 makes it just visible without a telescope. Parallax data places the system roughly 336 light-years away, and it is receding from the Sun at a speed of +6 km/s.
Quick Facts
- Bayer designation
- Gamma2 Caeli
- Combined apparent visual magnitude
- 6.32
- Distance
- 336 ly
- Radial velocity
- +6 km/s
- Primary spectral type
- F2 IV/V
- Primary apparent magnitude
- +6.32
- Secondary apparent magnitude
- +9.65
Facts from the source article.
Properties
The primary, component A, is yellow-white-hued with a stellar classification of F2 IV/V, showing traits of both an F-type main-sequence star and a subgiant. Its spectral lines display a narrow absorption core suggesting a circumstellar shell. This star is a Delta Scuti variable, with brightness varying over a period of 3.25 hours; a 2000 observing campaign identified at least six independent pulsation modes. It has 1.5 times the Sun's mass, 3.4 times the Sun's radius, and radiates 24 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 7,227 K. The star is nearly a billion years old with a projected rotational velocity of 69 km/s. The companion, component B, has an apparent magnitude of +9.65 and, as of 2000, lies at an angular separation along a position angle of 183°. The orbital period is unknown.
More in Bright Stars by Bayer Designation: Binary and Multiple Stars
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