Delta Virginis (δ Virginis, abbreviated Del Vir, δ Vir), formally named Minelauva , is a

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

in the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Virgo Virgo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Virgo (film), a 1970 Egyptian film * Virgo (character), several Marvel Comics characters * Virgo Asmita, a character in the manga ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' * ''Virgo'' (album), by Virgo Four, ...

. With an

apparent visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction of the object's light ca ...

of 3.4, this star is bright enough to be seen with the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...

. It is located at a distance of about from Earth.

Nomenclature

''δ Virginis'' ( Latinised to ''Delta Virginis'') is the star's

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

. It bore the traditional,

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

names ''Auva'' and ''Minelauva'' from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

من العواء ''min al-ʽawwāʼ'', meaning "in the

lunar mansion Often called lunar mansion, a lunar station or lunar house is a segment of the ecliptic through which the Moon passes in orbit of the Moon, its orbit around the Earth. The concept was used by several ancient cultures as part of their calendrical ...

of ''ʽawwaʼ''" (a name of unknown meaning). In 2016, the IAU organized a

Working Group on Star Names The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...

(WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name ''Minelauva'' for this star on 30 June 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names. This star, along with

Beta Virginis Beta Virginis, a name Latinised from β Virginis, is a star in the equatorial constellation of Virgo. It has the proper name Zavijava (), and, despite its designation 'beta', is the fifth-brightest star in Virgo with an apparent visual ...

(Zavijava),

Gamma Virginis Gamma Virginis (γ Virginis, abbreviated Gamma Vir, γ Vir), officially named Porrima , is a binary star system in the constellation of Virgo. It consists of two almost identical main sequence stars at a distance of about 38 light-years ...

(Porrima),

Eta Virginis Eta Virginis (η Virginis, abbreviated Eta Vir, η Vir) is a triple star system in the zodiac constellation of Virgo. From parallax measurements, it is about from the Sun. It has a combined apparent visual magnitude of 3.89, bright en ...

(Zaniah) and

Epsilon Virginis Epsilon Virginis (ε Virginis, abbreviated Epsilon Vir, ε Vir), formally named Vindemiatrix , is a star in the zodiac constellation of Virgo. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +2.8, making it the third-brightest member of Vi ...

(Vindemiatrix), were ''Al ʽAwwāʼ'', 'the Barker'. In Chinese, (), meaning '' Left Wall of Supreme Palace Enclosure'', refers to an asterism consisting of Delta Virginis, Eta Virginis, Gamma Virginis, Epsilon Virginis and

Alpha Comae Berenices Alpha Comae Berenices (α Comae Berenices, abbreviated Alpha Com, α Com) is a binary star in the constellation of Coma Berenices ( Berenice's Hair), away. It consists of two main sequence stars, each a little hotter and more luminous ...

. Consequently, the

Chinese name Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethni ...

for Delta Virginis itself is (, ), representing (), meaning 'The Second Eastern Minister'. 東次相 (Dōngcìxiāng), westernized into ''Tsze Seang'' by R.H. Allen and meaning "the Second Minister of State".

Properties

The

spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

of Delta Virginis matches a

stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction gratin ...

of M3 III, which places it among the category of

evolved Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

stars called

red giant A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The stellar atmosphere, outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface t ...

s. Indeed, the outer atmosphere of this star has expanded to around 67 times the radius of the Sun. Even though it has just 1.19 times the mass of the Sun, this wide envelope gives it a luminosity of nearly 700 times the Sun's. This energy is being radiated from a relatively cool outer atmosphere that has an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

of 3,643 K. It is this cool temperature that gives it the orange-red glow of an M-type star. DeltaVirLightCurve

The outer envelope of this star is undergoing a type of pulsation that occurs in a class of

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

s known as

semiregular variable In astronomy, a semiregular variable star, a type of variable star, is a Red giant, giant or supergiant of intermediate and late (cooler) spectral type. It shows considerable periodicity in its light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted b ...

s and its brightness varies from magnitude +3.32 to +3.40. Based upon

frequency analysis In cryptanalysis, frequency analysis (also known as counting letters) is the study of the frequency of letters or groups of letters in a ciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breaking classical ciphers. Frequency analysis is based on th ...

of the observed light curve, the star's variability exhibits multiple periods of pulsation. The detected periods are 13.0, 17.2, 25.6, 110.1 and 125.8 days. This is a high-velocity star with a

peculiar velocity Peculiar motion or peculiar velocity refers to the velocity of an object relative to a ''rest frame''—usually a frame in which the average velocity of some objects is zero. Galactic astronomy In galactic astronomy, peculiar motion refers to t ...

of more than relative to the mean motion of other stars in the vicinity. Delta Virginis is a possible

binary star A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...

, as an 11th magnitude star is located at an

angular separation Angular distance or angular separation is the measure of the angle between the orientation of two straight lines, rays, or vectors in three-dimensional space, or the central angle subtended by the radii through two points on a sphere. When t ...

of 80

arcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (abbreviated as arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of a degree. Since one degree is of a turn, or complete rotation, one arcminute is of a tu ...

s. This K-type dwarf may have an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of over 200,000 years, but this has not been confirmed.

Substellar companion

A 2023 study detected

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the vector displacement between the two points. It is formulated as the vector projection of the target-observer relative velocity ...

variations in Delta Virginis (HD 112300), showing evidence of a substellar companion, likely a

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main sequence, main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 Jupiter mass, times that of Jupiter ()not big en ...

References

External links

Alcyone ephemeris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delta Virginis M-type giants K-type main-sequence stars Asymptotic-giant-branch stars Semiregular variable stars Double stars Virgo (constellation) Virginis, Delta BD+04 2669 Virginis, 043 063090 4910 112300 Minelauva 411188061 Planetary systems with one confirmed planet Brown dwarfs