Rho Aurigae is a

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 ...

system in the

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

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 ...

Auriga Auriga is a constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is one of the 88 modern constellations; it was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. Its name is Latin for '(the) charioteer', associating i ...

. Its name is a

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 ...

that is Latinized from ρ Aurigae, and abbreviated Rho Aur or ρ Aur. This system is faintly visible to 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 ...

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 +5.22. Judging by

parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different sightline, lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to perspective (graphica ...

measurements, this system is approximately distant from the Earth, give or take a 20-light-year

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a Statistical survey, survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of ...

. It is drifting further away from the Sun with a

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 ...

of +16 km/s. ρ Aurigae is a single-lined

spectroscopic binary 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 ...

system; the presence of a companion object is revealed by shifts in the

stellar spectrum Astronomical spectroscopy is the study of astronomy using the techniques of spectroscopy to measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared and radio waves that radiate from stars and oth ...

. The pair orbit each other with a

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

of 34.49 days and an

orbital eccentricity In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values be ...

of 0.10. The primary component of this system is a

B-type main-sequence star A B-type main-sequence star (B V) is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type B and luminosity class V. These stars have from 2 to 16 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 10,000 and 30,000 K. B-type stars ...

defined as a standard star for the

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 B5 V. The deduced mass of the secondary and the lack of evidence for it in the spectrum suggest it may be a B- or

A-type star A type or type A may refer to: Science * A-type asteroid, a type of relatively uncommon inner-belt asteroids * A type blood, a type in the ABO blood group system * A-type inclusion, a type of cell inclusion * A-type potassium channel, a type of ...

somewhat less luminous than the primary.

Name

Chinese 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-ethnic ...

, (), meaning '' Pool of Harmony'', refers to an asterism consisting of ρ Aurigae,

λ Aurigae Lambda Aurigae is a Sun-like star in the northern constellation of Auriga. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from λ Aurigae, and abbreviated Lambda Aur or λ Aur. This star is visible to the naked eye with an apparent v ...

and

HD 36041 HD 36041 is giant star in the northern constellation Auriga. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.37, making it faintly visible to the naked eye. It forms a double star with HD 36027; the two are separated by . References External links HR ...

. 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 ρ Aurigae itself is (, ).

References

External links

HR 1749
in

Bright Star Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the na ...

ρ Aurigae
image {{DEFAULTSORT:Rho Aurigae B-type main-sequence stars Spectroscopic binaries Auriga Aurigae, Rho

1749 Events January–March * January 3 ** Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont. ** The first issue of ''Berlingske'', Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, i ...

Durchmusterung objects Aurigae, 20 034759 025048

Name

References

Further reading

External links