Tau Scorpii, Latinized from τ Scorpii, formally known as Paikauhale , 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 southern

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 ...

of Scorpius. The apparent visual magnitude of Tau Scorpii is +2.8, which make it among the brightest stars of the Scorpius constellation.

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 yield a distance estimate of roughly 470

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

s (150

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

s) from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Description

Tau Scorpii is a B-type star with an early spectral classification of B0.2V. It has 15 times the Sun's mass and 6.4 times the radius of the Sun. It is radiating about 25,000 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere 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 28,860 K. This gives it the blue-white hue characteristic of B-type stars. As yet there is no evidence of a companion in orbit around τ Sco. It is a

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, m ...

star whose surface magnetic field was mapped by means of Zeeman–Doppler imaging. Tau Scorpii is rotating relatively slowly with a period of 41 days. This star is 5.22 million years old, being in the

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color index, color versus absolute magnitude, brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or d ...

. Since it is more massive than the Sun, Tau Scorpii will evolve and exhaust its core hydrogen much faster. It is expected that in around 5.38 million years it will leave the main sequence, expanding to 10.9 times the Sun's radius, and in 6.4 million years (or 11.6 Myr after its formation), it will become a red supergiant with 750 times the radius of the Sun, comparable to

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...

which is . 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 this star shows triply ionized oxygen (O IV) that is being generated by X-rays and the Auger ionization effect. Observations with the ROSAT space telescope showed it has a higher energy (harder) X-ray spectrum than is usual for B0 V stars. Over the energy range 0.8–1.2 keV, its X-ray luminosity is ''L''_x = with a large ''L''_x to ''L''_bol of log ''L''_x/''L''_bol = –6.53 from

ASCA ''Asca'' is a genus of mites. Asca or ASCA may also refer to: Organisations * ASCA (news agency), Italy (founded 1969) * Accumulating savings & credit association, a form of microfinance * American Swimming Coaches Association (founded 1958) * A ...

measurements. ROSAT measurements showed a log ''L''_x/''L''_bol ≃ –5.93 for the range 0.1–2.4 keV. The hard component of the X-ray spectrum from τ Sco as studied with XMM-Newton supports the presence of in-falling clumps of plasma in τ Sco. This star is a

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects as they move relative to the center of mass of the Solar System. It is measured relative to the distant stars or a stable referenc ...

member of the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Scorpius–Centaurus OB association, the nearest such co-moving association of massive stars to the Sun. The Upper Scorpius subgroup contains thousands of young stars with mean age 11 million years at average distance of 470 light years (145 parsecs).

Nomenclature

''τ Scorpii'' ( Latinised to ''Tau Scorpii'') 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 ...

. Tau Scorpii and Sigma Scorpii together bore the traditional name ''Al Niyat'' (or ''Alniyat'') derived 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 ...

النياط ''al-niyāţ'' "the arteries" and referring to their position flanking the star

, the scorpion's heart, with Tau Scorpii being the star to the south. ''Paikauhale'' is the Hawaiian name for Tau Scorpii. It forms a line of three stars with Hōkū-‘ula (

) and Au-haele ( σ Scorpii). In the Hawaiian dictionary by Pukuʻi & Elbert (1986), the word ''paikauhale'' is defined as ''to go gadding about from house to house''. In another Hawaiian dictionary (H.W. Kent, 1993, "Treasury of Hawaiian Words in One Hundred and One Categories", p.367), ''paikauhale'' is defined as ''Vagabond owning no home; house-to-house wanderer.'' 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 ''Paikauhale'' for the star A on 10 August 2018 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names. The name ''Alniyat'' was given to Sigma Scorpii. The indigenous Boorong people of northwestern Victoria saw this star (together with σ Sco) as wives of '' Djuit'' (

). In Chinese, (), meaning ''

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

'', refers to an asterism consisting of τ Scorpii, σ Scorpii and

. Consequently, the Chinese name for τ Scorpii itself is (), "the Third Star of Heart".香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表
, Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.

References

{{Stars of Scorpius B-type main-sequence stars Astronomical X-ray sources Upper Scorpius Scorpius Scorpii, Tau CD-27 11015 Scorpii, 23 149438 081266 6165 Paikauhale