Regulus is the dot of the question mark. In some years, the moon occults (passes in front of) this star as seen from Earth. 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. The pair lie about 177 arc seconds or 4,200 astronomical units away from Regulus A. Regulus B has an apparent magnitude of 8.13 and Regulus C has an apparent magnitude of 13.50. The star was first discovered in 1969 by the American astrophysicist Eric Brecklin and his team of astronomers. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun. Image: Hubble ESA (CC BY 2.0). It is one of the zodiac constellations and one of the largest constellations in the sky. The two are separated by 0.35 astronomical units and complete an orbit around a common centre of mass every 40.11 days. It has a visual magnitude of 2.56. Regulus completes a rotation in only 15.9 hours and its equatorial rotational velocity is 96.5 percent of its breakup velocity. By early June, itll be high in the southwest an hour after sunset. The stars share a common proper motion with Regulus A and are believed to have an orbital period of several million years with the primary. Regulus was associated with Jupiter and Mars, and linked with granite and mugwort. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. They are dimmer main sequence stars with an apparent magnitude of 8.14 and 13.5. There are two meteor showers associated with the constellation. The Persians knew the star as Miyan, the Centre and as Venant, the guardian of the north. During the December 2026 occultation, Mars and Jupiter will be nearby. Its traditional name (Regulus) means "the little king". Other planets will not occult Regulus over the next few millennia because of their node positions. The Diamond of Virgo. The fourth star in the system has never been directly resolved via imaging, but its presence is revealed by spectroscopic analysis of Regulus A. Astronomers think it may be a closely orbiting white dwarf star. The Sickle is outlined by the stars Epsilon Leonis, Rasalas (Mu Leonis), Adhafera (Zeta Leonis), Algieba (Gamma Leonis), and Eta Leonis. I am the child of earth and starry heaven. Petelia Tablet, We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde. Leo Constellation for Kids. Facts, Myth, and photos. - Little Astronomy [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. His small book on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press. Draco) or exist in the real world (e.g. The main component in the Regulus A system is orbited by a companion with at least 0.3 solar masses. 1.40), Algieba (Gamma Leo, mag. Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_stars&oldid=1121493956, Articles needing additional references from August 2008, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 November 2022, at 15:56. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). And, every month, the moon passes near Regulus. They regarded Regulus as - the star that stands at the Lion's breast - or sometimes The King Star. Other stars that belong to this association are Alpha Pictoris in the constellation Pictor, Beta Canis Minoris in the constellation Canis Minor, and the stars in the open cluster IC 2391, also known as the Omicron Velorum Cluster, located in the constellation Vela. This article is about the star. It was the Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus who translated these names into Latin as Regulus. The Arabic name for the star is Qalb al-Asad, which means the heart of the lion.. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Regulus ranks 21st in the list of brightest stars in our sky. 9. It looks like a single point of light, but is really four stars. Regulus A is the dominant star, with a binary companion 177" distant that is thought to be physically related. In Greek mythology, The Greeks associated Constellation Leo with the Nemean Lion. Astrophotographer John Chumack sent in a photo of Mars (red), Regulus (blue star) and the waning crescent moon in a triangle over his backyard observatory in Dayton, OH. Leo is also home to the red dwarf Wolf 359, one of the nearest stars to the Sun at a distance of 7.86 light years, the bright variable red giant star R Leonis, Icarus (MACS J1149 LS1), one of the most distant stars discovered to date, and the carbon star CW Leonis, the brightest star in the infrared N-band (10 m). The asterism looks like a backwards question mark and outlines the head of the celestial lion. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. And Regulus is not the only star with a fast spin. The asteroid 166 Rhodope, discovered in August 1876, was observed occulting Regulus by a team of researchers on October 19, 2005. Denebola also exhibits a strong infrared excess, which suggests that it may have a circumstellar debris disk of dust in its orbit. 1", "Occultations of bright stars by planets between 0 and 4000", "The 2001 US Naval Observatory Double Star CD-ROM. In Persian astronomy, the sky was divided into four districts and each district was guarded by one of the four bright stars. The primary component in the system, the blue supergiant, has a companion located at an angular separation of 0.11 arc seconds. The BC pair lies at an angular distance of 177 arc-seconds from Regulus A, making them visible in amateur telescopes.[24]. Leo constellation: Facts, location, and stars of the lion | Space 5 star rating. This system is known as an active galactic nucleus. 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. This is not only the best golf resort in the area, but actually one the best in the country. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA and the LEGUS Team, acknowledgement: R. Gendler. Regulus, also known as Alpha Leonis, is the brightest star in the constellation Leo and the 21st brightest star in the night sky. The star is suspected to be a part of a binary system. (Regulus axis is tilted 86 degrees.). Few of the Universes residents are as iconic as the spiral galaxy. Its symbol is . It has an apparent magnitude of 10.25 and is approximately 35 million light years distant. Accessed 1 May, 2023. The proper names of stars that have been officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) are Adhafera, Algieba, Alterf, Chertan, Denebola, Dingolay, Formosa, Moriah, Rasalas, Regulus, Sagarmatha, Subra, and Zosma. Fixed Star Regulus - Astrology King The last occultation of Regulus by a planet was on July 7, 1959, by Venus. The Planets. A and BC share a common proper motion and are thought to orbit each other[5] taking several million years. Leo constellation lies in the northern sky. 2.56), Epsilon Leonis (mag. Search reviews. Star Trek fans will recognize it as the location of the Battle of Wolf 359, in which the Borg, led by the assimilated Captain Picard, obliterate the Starfleet ships, leaving few survivors, among them Benjamin Sisko, the future captain of Deep Space Nine. Along with Sirius and Orion, Regulus would be one of the star systems from which man originates. Easily recognizable for the Sickle asterism that outlines the Lions mane and shoulders, Leo is known for its bright stars mainly Regulus and Denebola and a number of bright deep sky objects. Rho Leonis has the stellar classification B1 lab, which means that it has reached the supergiant stage of its evolution. It was discovered by Pierre Mchain on March 20, 1781 and then included in Messiers catalogue a few days later. Along with the brighter Vega, Altair, and Achernar, Regulus is one of the brightest and best-known examples of gravity darkening. Regulus is actually a quadruple-star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. Sorting Astronomical Bodies Quiz - Constellations, Asterisms and Stars This is because the star is so distorted that it lessens gravity's strength, which then turns down the temperature at the equator, the researchers said. In the MUL.APIN, a catalogue of stars and constellations in Babylon, Regulus was listed as LUGAL. 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. M95 belongs to the M96 Group of galaxies, which also includes M96 and M105, and also at least nine other galaxies. Marissa B. Goodyear, AZ. NGC 3842 is an elliptical galaxy, notable for having one of the largest black holes known. The dwarfs are about 95 AUs apart, more than three times the average distance between Neptune and the sun. The three-letter abbreviation, adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1922, is Leo. . 35 Leonis is located 325.9 arc seconds away from Adhafera and it is only a line-of-sight companion, as it is only 100 light years distant from Earth. The rotation of Regulus speeds at 700,000 mph (1.1 million kph) at its equator. The name Regulus means the little king or prince in Latin. The brighter pair, designated Regulus A, is a spectroscopic binary system consisting of a bright blue star of spectral classification B7 V, and a companion that has not been directly observed, but is likely a white dwarf with a low mass of only 0.3 solar. Lambda Leonis is a K5-class star, about 336 light years from the Sun. The poles are said to be gravity brightened, while the equator is gravity darkened. The poles of Regulus are five times brighter than the equator. Regulus is best seen in late winter and spring in the northern hemisphere, when it rises high above the horizon in the evening. NGC 3384 belongs to the M96 Group (Leo I Group) of galaxies. Polish astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus gave the star its name, which was equivalent to Basiliskos (little king), used by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. In fact, this image from Hubble frames a perfect spiral specimen: the stunning NGC 2903. By early April, Regulus was well up in the southeast an hour after sunset. The name of this star is a diminutive form of the Latin Rex. Among the odd effects on the star: Regulus is much hotter at its poles (27,212 F, or 15,100 C) than its equator (18,032 F or 10,000 C). Lyra is a Latin name that in English means "The Lyra". The fainter one is Regulus B, a cool orange dwarf star with a spectral classification of K2 V. The B star has a mass that is 80% of the suns, and its half as bright. Wigwam Resort Golf Course. M105 was discovered by Pierre Mchain in March 1781, a few days after he had first observed M95 and M96. Rgulus is Latin for 'prince' or 'little king';[36] its Greek equivalent (Latinised) is Basiliscus. Leo's brightest star, Regulus, was often called the "Red Flame" and was thought to contribute to the heat of summer. [4] I am the author of five books on mythology, including one on sun-goddesses. It has a visual magnitude of 9.7 and is approximately 30.6 million light years distant from the Sun. In contrast, our sun spins on its axis about once every 27 days. Except that he did throw his lot in with Voldemort, which doesn't strike us as particularly clever. Denebola is the second brightest star in Leo and the 61st brightest star in the sky. Charles Messier discovered it in 1780. EarthSky | Aldebaran is Taurus the Bull's bloodshot eye A planet was discovered in the orbit of the primary star in November 2009. 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. Your submission has been received! The name Regulus is from the diminutive form of the Latin rex, meaning little king. They are located 100 astronomical units away from each other and have an orbital period of 2,000 years. Theta Leonis is another white main sequence star. Given the extremely distorted shape of the primary, the relative orbital motion may be notably altered with respect to the two-body purely Keplerian scenario because of non-negligible long-term orbital perturbations affecting, for example, its orbital period. The name Regulus was officially approved by the International Astronomical Unions (IAU) Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) on June 30, 2016.
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