Epsilon Carinae
 Artistic rendering of Avior binary system (Epsilon Carinae) |
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| Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000 |
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|---|---|
| Constellation | Carina |
| Right ascension | 08h 22m 30.8s |
| Declination | −59° 30′ 35″ |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 1.86 (~2.3 / ~3.3) |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | K3 III/B2 V |
| U−B color index | 0.19 |
| B−V color index | 1.20 |
| Variable type | Eclipsing (suspected) |
| Astrometry | |
| Radial velocity (Rv) | 2 km/s |
| Proper motion (μ) | RA: −25.34 mas/yr Dec.: 22.72 mas/yr |
| Parallax (π) | 5.16 ± 0.49 mas |
| Distance | 630 ± 60 ly (190 ± 20 pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | −4.58 |
| Details | |
| Mass | 10/8 M☉ |
| Radius | 170/4.5 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 10000/~3,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | 4,100/24,000 K |
| Other designations | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
Epsilon Carinae (ε Car, ε Carinae) is a star in the constellation Carina. At apparent magnitude +1.86 it is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but is not visible from the northern hemisphere.
It is also known by the name Avior, but this is not a classical name. It was assigned to the star by Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office in the late 1930s during the creation of The Air Almanac, a navigational almanac for the Royal Air Force. Of the fifty-seven navigation stars included in the new almanac, two had no classical names: Epsilon Carinae and Alpha Pavonis. The RAF insisted that all of the stars must have names, so new names were invented. Alpha Pavonis was named "Peacock", a translation of Pavo, whilst Epsilon Carinae was called "Avior".[1]
In Chinese, 海石 (Hǎi Dàn), meaning Sea Rock, refers to an asterism consisting of ε Carinae, ι Carinae, HD 83183, HD 84810 and υ Carinae .[2] Consequently, ε Carinae itself is known as 海石一 (Hǎi Dàn yī, English: the First Star of Sea Rock.)[3]
Epsilon Carinae is a binary star located 630 light years away from the Earth. The primary component is a dying orange giant of spectral class K0 III, and the secondary is a hot hydrogen-fusing blue dwarf of class B2 V. The stars regularly eclipse each other, leading to brightness fluctuations on the order of 0.1 magnitudes.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Sadler, D.H.: "A Personal History of H.M. Nautical Almanac Office", page 46. Edited and privately published by Wilkins, G.A., 1993
- ^ (Chinese) 中國星座神話, written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, ISBN 978-986-7332-25-7.
- ^ (Chinese) 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.
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