Beta Scuti, Latinized from β Scuti, 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 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 ...

Scutum The ''scutum'' (; :''scuta'') was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of ...

. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 4.85 mas as seen from Earth, it is located approximately 670

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by t ...

s from the

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

Characteristics

This is a

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 ...

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 planets ...

of 2.3 years and

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

around 0.35. The secondary is about 3.3 magnitudes dimmer than the primary and estimated as type B9 based on the flux of far-ultraviolet radiation. The primary component has 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 +4.22 and is radiating about 1,315 times the luminosity of the Sun from its outer atmosphere at 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 4,951 K. This yellow-hued star is a G-type

bright giant A giant star has a substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature. They lie above the main sequence (luminosity class V in the Yerkes spectral classification) on the Hertzspr ...

with 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 G4 IIa. Its

angular diameter The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular separation (in units of angle) describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the ''visual an ...

was measured at 2.121

milliarcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (abbreviated as arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of Angular unit, angular measurement equal to of a Degree (angle), degree. Since one degree is of a turn (geometry), turn, or ...

s by the

Navy Precision Optical Interferometer The Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI) is an American astronomical interferometer, with the world's largest baselines, operated by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Until the end of 2022, it was operated by a consortium that included ...

, which gives it a physical radius of approximately at the estimated distance. The secondary was directly detected with a magnitude difference of 3.6 at a separation of about 17 milli-arcseconds using observations from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer. This detection was significant as observations with the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

which indicated a companion star was present were not definitive. With an orbit and a parallax the sum of the masses of the two stars can be determined via a

dynamical parallax In astronomy, the distance to a visual binary, visual binary star may be estimated from the masses of its two components, the angular size of their orbit, and the period of their orbit about one another. A dynamical parallax is an (annual) paralla ...

. This eventually can yield a precise mass for the evolved giant primary star. Beta Scuti was a latter designation of 6 Aquilae.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beta Scuti G-type bright giants Spectroscopic binaries Scutum (constellation) Scuti, Beta BD-04 4582 173764 092175 7063 TIC objects