In Arabia, Regulus was referred to as Malikiyy, "the kingly one", according to stellar nomenclature expert Richard Hinckley Allen. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It can be located using the stars of the Big Dipper; Megrez and Phecda, the two inner stars of the Dippers bowl, point the way to the asterism. The two stars complete an orbit around their common centre of mass every 40 days or so. The Regulus BC pair can be observed in smaller instruments. Regulus B is slightly hotter. Some Renaissance astrologers called it the Royal Star. [5] From this observation individuals began to denote them the royal stars. New York, Regulus is fairly easy to find in the sky as it is part of the Sickle of Leo, a prominent asterism in the constellation Leo, and marks the lower end of the Sickles handle. In Indian astronomy, Regulus corresponds to the Nakshatra Magha ("the bountiful"). Regulus star is also known as Basiliskos, Cor Leonis (Lion's Heart), Qalb al-Asad and Rex. Larry Sessions has written many favorite posts in EarthSky's Tonight area. Regulus has a mass 3.8 times that of the Sun and a radius 4.35 times solar. In English, the constellation is known as the Lion. Regulus is only slightly fainter than Deneb in the constellation Cygnus and Mimosa in Crux, and it just outshines Adhara in Canis Major, Castor in Gemini, and Shaula in Scorpius. [29] The center of the shadow path passed through New York and eastern Ontario, but no one is known to have seen it, due to cloud cover. Gamma Leonis is a double star in Leo. It would also be the star system from which the lions and the lion Gods (half man, half human) originally came. Also, with a rotation period of 15.9 hours, Regulus is a lot faster than the Sun. Located in the southern hemisphere, Centaurus is named for the half man half horse creatures of Greek mythology. Later, as the stars of Aries took the spring equinox position, Aldebaran moved to the cross-quarter day of May 1, and Regulus took over August 1. It is a bluish star, and it can be seen all around the globe. The second brightest star is Denebola, an A-type main-sequence star-forming the tail of the lion. With just 1/3 the mass of the sun, Regulus C is a red dwarf star with a spectral classification of M4V. Regulus B and C are gravitationally bound to each other, and together theyre called Regulus BC. The name Regulus means little king or prince in Latin. The companion is believed to be a white dwarf. (In Arabic, Qalb al-Asad, anglicized to Kabelaced.) Regulus spins on its axis once every 16 hours. Regulus A has a right ascension of 10h 08m 22.311s and a declination of +11 58 01.95. The constellation Leo was mentioned in the Tetrabiblos, an ancient Roman text by Ptolemy (c. A.D. 100 170). Leo contains five Messier objects: Messier 65 (M65, NGC 3623), Messier 66 (M66, NGC 3627), Messier 95 (M95, NGC 3351), Messier 96 (M96, NGC 3368), and Messier 105 (M105, NGC 3379). Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Ho et al. . "The picture makes me wonder what it would be like to be in a solar system with this type of star.". The system lies approximately 79 light years from the Sun. It has a visual magnitude of 3.856 and is approximately 5,000 light years distant. This means that it completes a rotation every 15.9 hours and, as a result, its shape has been distorted into an oblate spheroid, with the equatorial diameter 32 percent larger than the polar diameter. The Persians knew the star as Miyan, the Centre and as Venant, the guardian of the north. History and Mythology. The stars traditional name, Alterf, comes from the Arabic a-arf, which means the view (of the lion).. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. And from mid-September through mid-February, Regulus will be in the morning sky. The dwarfs are about 95 AUs apart, more than three times the average distance between Neptune and the sun. Regulus A is a spectroscopic binary star composed of a blue-white main sequence star belonging to the spectral class B7 V, and a companion star which cannot be resolved, but is believed to be a white dwarf. He began his 1st comet hunting program in 1975 and found his 1st comet in 1978, after 1700 hours of searching. In 1978, Don was one of the independent inventors of the Messier Marathon, an attempt to find and view all 110 galaxies, clusters, and nebulae in one night. The main star Regulus A is large and blue with a spectral type of B8 IVn. Accessed 1 May, 2023. It is a main sequence star with the stellar classification A3 V. It has an apparent magnitude of 2.113 and is approximately 35.9 light years distant from Earth. The traditional name Rgulus is Latin for 'prince' or 'little king'. The primary star of Regulus A is a young star, only a few million years old, and has 3.5 times the mass of the Sun. Some observers consider Denebola instead of the brighter Regulus to mark one of the vertices and form a more equilateral triangle. Greek mythology. [40] It was one of the fifteen Behenian stars known to medieval astrologers, associated with granite, mugwort, and the kabbalistic symbol . It is the nearest group containing both bright spirals and a bright elliptical galaxy (Messier 105). The star is a very fast spinner, with a projected rotational velocity of 318 km/s at the equator. Stewart, Suzy. Regulus A is the brightest star of the system, having around 288 solar luminosities. Regulus ranks 21st in the list of brightest stars in our sky. A daily update by email. Regulus D is a 12th magnitude companion at 212",[33] but is an unrelated background object. Together, the pair have a right ascension of 10h 08m 12.8/14s and a declination of +11 59 48. Messier 105 is an elliptical galaxy in Leo. The Planets. In contrast, our sun spins on its axis about once every 27 days. They added, however, that they couldn't see anything in the system that would cause it to move faster. Retrieved from https://theplanets.org/stars/regulus-star/. The name Regulus is a diminutive form of rex, which is Latin for king. Along with the brighter Vega, Altair, and Achernar, Regulus is one of the brightest and best-known examples of gravity darkening. Designated RegulusB and RegulusC, the pair has Henry Draper Catalogue number HD 87884. 2 stars. 3.486), Subra (Omicron Leo, mag. 166 Rhodope, an asteroid about 54.6 km in size, occulted the star on October 19, 2005. Regulus B and Regulus C share a common proper motion. As a result of Regulus fast rotation, the stars shape has been distorted into a highly oblate spheroid. Regulus, along with five slightly dimmer stars (Zeta Leonis, Mu Leonis, Gamma Leonis, Epsilon Leonis, and Eta Leonis) have collectively been called 'the Sickle', which is an asterism that marks the head of Leo. Until the end of his life, in 2022, Don continued his visual comet hunting and Messier Marathons from Arizona, where he lived with his wife Michele. There are no recently available measurements. [27] The next will occur on October 1, 2044, also by Venus. It is the 22nd brightest star, although the 21st, Alpha Centauri, is not much brighter than it is. It belongs to the spectral class M2.5 V. An extrasolar planet, Gliese 436b, was discovered in the stars orbit in 2004, and the presence of another planet, UCF-1.01, was confirmed in 2012. Along with Regulus in Leo, Alpha Virginis is believed to be one of the bright stars that made it possible for Hipparchus (160 - 120 BC) to discover the precession of the equinoxes, after comparing his data to that of the Alexandrian Timochares, who had observed Spica and Regulus around 300 BC. Denebola, Spica, and Arcturus form the Great Diamond (the Diamond of Virgo) with the fainter Cor Caroli, the brightest star in Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). Ultraviolet emissions from the galaxys central region suggest that it has a supermassive black hole at its core. The stars traditional naames, Ras Elased (Australis), Asad Australis and Algenubi, are derived from the Arabic phrase rs al-asad al-janb, which means the southern star of the lions head., Epsilon Leonis is 288 times more luminous than the Sun, four times as massive, and it has 21 times the solar radius. Differential bending of light was measured to be consistent with general relativity. It has a mass of 3.8 solar masses and is an extremely fast spinner, with a rotational velocity of 347 km/s. Regulus C has an estimated surface temperature of 3,242 K. The Regulus BC pair is separated by 177 seconds of arc, or about 5,000 astronomical units, from Regulus A and can be seen in small telescopes. Save. Pingback: Antares: the scorpions heart |, Pingback: Aldebaran: the Bulls Eye WE ARE STAR STUFF, Pingback: Spica: the Wheat Sheaf We Are Star Stuff. Regulus is 0.465 degrees from the ecliptic,[25] the closest of the bright stars, and is often occulted by the Moon. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.1 and is about 31 million light years distant. According to Bantu Mythology mankind is not indigenous to planet Earth. It is the object within the Regulus system that can be seen with the naked eye. Transformers movies ranked, worst to best, Jupiter missions: Past, present and future, The best sci-fi movies and TV shows on Paramount Plus in M04, What equipment do you need to see and photograph the planets, Annular solar eclipse 2023: Everything you need to know about North America's 'ring of fire' eclipse. Denebola exhibits variations in luminosity of 0.025 magnitudes about ten times a day. Its traditional name, Al Minliar, comes from the Arabic Minkhir al-Asad, which means the muzzle of the lion. The star has the stellar classification K2III. It has 11 stars with known planets. It looks like a single point of light, but is really four stars. Indeed, the lowest mass white dwarfs are usually found in binary systems where they lost a significant fraction of their mass.". The star Spica - aka Alpha Virginis - is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. Regulus B, and its companion star, Regulus C are dimmer main sequence stars that are bound together by gravity. It has a nominal luminosity of 11,300 times that of the Sun, but this varies over the course of the pulsation cycle, from 6,250 to 15,800 times the Suns luminosity. If you've already donated, we apologize for the popup and greatly appreciate your support. Regulus is about 70 light-years away from Earth, making it the closest star of this type to our planet, according to astronomer David Darling. Regulus appears singular, but is actually a quadruple star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. The four stars with their modern names, and their ancient Persian names (in brackets) were: The four dominant stars have an apparent magnitude1.5 or brighter. If the star were spinning 10 percent faster, it would fly apart as its gravity would not be strong enough to hold it together. The International Occultation Timing Association recorded no observations at all.

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