Beta Gruis (β Gruis, abbreviated Beta Gru, β Gru), formally named Tiaki , is the second brightest

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 southern

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 ...

of Grus. It was once considered the rear star in the tail of the constellation of the (Southern) Fish,

Piscis Austrinus Piscis Austrinus is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. The name is Latin for "the southern fish", in contrast with the larger constellation Pisces, which represents a pair of fish. Before the 20th century, it was also known as ...

: it, with

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

Theta Theta (, ) uppercase Θ or ; lowercase θ or ; ''thē̂ta'' ; Modern: ''thī́ta'' ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth 𐤈. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9. Gree ...

Iota Iota (; uppercase Ι, lowercase ι; ) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), and J ...

, and Lambda Gruis, belonged to Piscis Austrinus in medieval Arabic astronomy.

Nomenclature

''β Gruis'' ( Latinised to ''Beta Gruis'') 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 Tuamotuan name of ''Tiaki''. 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 ''Tiaki'' for this star on 5 September 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names. In Chinese, (), meaning '' Crane'', refers to an asterism consisting of Beta Gruis,

Alpha Gruis Alpha Gruis is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Grus (constellation), Grus. It is officially named Alnair; ''Alpha Gruis'' is the star's Bayer designation, which is Latinisation of names, Latinized from α Gruis and abb ...

Epsilon Gruis ε Gruis, Latinised as Epsilon Gruis, is a blue-white hued star in the southern constellation of Grus. It is visible to the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of 3.5. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 25.30 mas as ...

, Eta Gruis, Delta Tucanae, Zeta Gruis, Iota Gruis, Theta Gruis, Delta² Gruis and Mu¹ Gruis. Consequently, Beta Gruis itself is known as (, ). The Chinese name gave rise to another English name, ''Ke''.

Properties

Beta Gruis is a

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 ...

star on the

asymptotic giant branch The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is a region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram populated by evolved cool luminous stars. This is a period of stellar evolution undertaken by all low- to intermediate-mass stars (about 0.5 to 8 solar masses) lat ...

with an estimated mass of about 2.4 times that of

the Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

and a surface temperature of approximately 3,500 K, just over half the surface temperature of the Sun. This low temperature accounts for the dull red color of an M-type star. The total luminosity is about 3,200 times that of

, and it has 150 times the

Sun's radius Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of objects in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: 1\,R_ = 6.957\ti ...

. It is one of the brightest stars at

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

and near-infrared wavelenghts. At the K band, it is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky.

Alan William James Cousins Alan William James Cousins FRAS (8 August 1903 – 11 May 2001) was a South African astronomer. His career spanned 70 years during which time he concentrated on the measurement of variable stars, including the measurement of the two sinusoidal ...

announced that Beta Gruis is a

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 ...

in 1952. Beta Gruis is a

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 ...

(SRb) star that varies in magnitude by about 0.4. It varies between intervals when it displays regular changes with a 37-day periodicity and times when it undergoes slow irregular variability.

References

External links

MSN Encarta

2009-10-31) {{DEFAULTSORT:Beta Gruis M-type giants Semiregular variable stars Asymptotic-giant-branch stars Grus (constellation) Gruis, Beta Durchmusterung objects 214952 112122 8636 Tiaki Gruis, 057