AR Cassiopeiae (AR Cas) is a

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

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellation ...

of Cassiopeia. It is thought to be a member of a septuple star system, one of only two known

star system A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a '' star cluster'' or ''galaxy'', although, broadly speaking ...

s with a multiplicity of 7, the other being Nu Scorpii.

Nomenclature

The multiple star system as a whole has the designations ADS 16795, CCDM J23300+5833, and WDS J23300+5833AB in the Aitken Double Star Catalogue, the Catalogue of Components of Double and Multiple Stars, and the

Washington Double Star Catalog The Washington Double Star Catalog, or WDS, is a catalog of double stars, maintained at the United States Naval Observatory. The catalog contains positions, magnitudes, proper motions and spectral types and has entries for (as of June 2017) 141,7 ...

respectively. AR Cassiopeiae has been referred to as IH Cas in some literature, looking similar to a

variable star designation In astronomy, a variable star designation is a unique identifier given to variable stars. It uses a variation on the Bayer designation format, with an identifying label (as described below) preceding the Latin genitive of the name of the const ...

although not a valid one since the second letter of a variable star designation is always equal to the first or occurs later in the alphabet. The origin of the designation "IH Cassiopeiae" is from the 17th century catalogue and constellation map by

Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor ...

, which was kept in use due to the lack of a

Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named for John Flamsteed who first used them while co ...

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars ...

for the star. It was the first star in Cassiopeia that

Flamsteed John Flamsteed (19 August 1646 – 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal. His main achievements were the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, ''Catalogus Britannicus'', and a star atlas called ''Atlas Coe ...

's edition of Hevelius catalogued, thus "1 Hev. Cas" or "1 H. Cas" (similar to

Gould designation Gould designations for stars are similar to Flamsteed designations in the way that they number stars within a constellation in increasing order of right ascension. Each star is assigned an integer (starting at 1), followed by " G. " (or occasional ...

s), which becomes IH Cas through corruption.

Properties

The primary star system, AR Cassiopeiae, is a triple. AR Cassiopeiae B is located 0.800″ away from AR Cassiopeiae A. AR Cassiopeiae A itself is an Algol-type

eclipsing binary A binary star 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 using a telescope as separate stars, in ...

with 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 pla ...

of about 6.07 days. Its primary 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 st ...

, and the secondary an

A-type main-sequence star An A-type main-sequence star (A V) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence ( hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class V (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure betwe ...

. The secondary star may be an

Am star An Am star or metallic-line star is a type of chemically peculiar star of spectral type A whose spectrum has strong and often variable absorption lines of metals such as zinc, strontium, zirconium, and barium, and deficiencies of others, such as ca ...

. Farther out are two other stars, designated components C and D. They are 76.1″, or about 1.27′, away from the central system. Their combined

spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...

matches that of another B-type main-sequence star. This pair is also designated HD 221237. 67.2″ (1.12′) away from AR Cassiopeiae is another pair of stars, F and G, both

F-type star An F-type main-sequence star (F V) is a main-sequence, hydrogen-fusing star of spectral type F and luminosity class V. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K.Tables VII ...

s. All these stars are known to be common

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more distan ...

companions. However, the star listed as component E in most multiple star catalogues is an unrelated background star.

References

{{Stars of Cassiopeia Cassiopeia (constellation) Algol variables 7 Cassiopeiae, AR Durchmusterung objects 221253 8926 115990 B-type main-sequence stars