Sigma Leonis is a blue-white star belonging to the spectral class B9.5Vs. While Regulus, like the sun, fuses hydrogen to helium in its center, it is more massive than the sun and therefore hotter and brighter. History and mythology of Aldebaran. The brothers became the seven major stars of the Big Dipper, and the girl became the small star Alcor. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! The stars proximity to the ecliptic (the apparent path of the Sun across the sky) means that Regulus is frequently occulted by the Moon. From a distance of 262 light-years away, Spica appears to us on Earth to be a lone. Regulus ranks 21st in the list of brightest stars in our sky. Regulus spins on its axis once every 16 hours. The existence of a white dwarf companion would mean that the system is at least 1 billion years old, just to account for the formation of the white dwarf. [28] Regulus was occulted by the asteroid 163 Erigone in the early morning of March 20, 2014. NGC 3384 belongs to the M96 Group (Leo I Group) of galaxies. The 2005 study examined the effects of the rotation for the first time using the CHARA telescope array on top of Mount Wilson in California. Regulus and its Leo neighbour Denebola are among the 58 bright stars that have been given a special status in the field of celestial navigation. In Arabia, Regulus was referred to as Malikiyy, "the kingly one", according to stellar nomenclature expert Richard Hinckley Allen. Regulus, Denebola, the Leo Triplet and the Leo I Group, image: Wikisky. Regulus is the only 1st magnitude star to sit almost squarely on the ecliptic, which marks the path of the sun, moon and planets across our sky. The companion is believed to be a white dwarf. [4] The planet Venus passes the star around this time every eight years. 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. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. Oops! The brighter of the pair is called Regulus A. The star Regulus is known by many different names in different cultures. NGC 3384 is an elliptical galaxy, approximately 35.1 million light years distant. HD 87884 is separated from Regulus by 176 and is itself a close pair. In English, the constellation is known as the Lion. It set upon the local inhabitants and could not be defeated because it had impenetrable skin. Regulus B and C are the other pair of stars in the system. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. In fact, if Regulus rotated just a bit faster, it would fly apart! Leonis (Latinized to Alpha Leonis) is the star system's Bayer designation. The Planets. The star exhibits variations in brightness over a period of 649 days. Regulus A is a spectroscopic binary star (blue-white main-sequence star) and its companion star is believed to be a white dwarf. The gaseous envelope, rich in carbon, is some 69,000 years old and the star is losing an enormous amount of mass each year. Regulus A is the brightest star of the system, having around 288 solar luminosities. It has a visual magnitude of 9.7 and is approximately 30.6 million light years distant from the Sun. Play Some Golf at the Wigwam Resort. The other name for Regulus is Cor Leonis, the Lions Heart. Regulus lies around 79.3 light years, or 24.3 parsecs, from Earth in the constellation of Leo. It has a visual magnitude of 10.8 and is a member of the Leo II Group (NGC 3607 Group) of galaxies. Seven other stars which have a Bayer designation are less than 0.9 from the ecliptic (perfected, mean plane of earth's orbit and mean apparent path of the sun) the next brightest of which is (Delta) Geminorum, of magnitude +3.53. Later he received a 6-inch (15 cm) Criterion Dynascope and found all the Messier Objects in one year (1969-70). The distances between B and C ranged from 4.0 to 2.5 arc seconds between 1867 and 1943. In astrology, the royal stars of Persia are Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut. Regulus is actually a quadruple-star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. Leo is one of the largest northern constellations. It has an apparent magnitude of 4.044 and is approximately 210 light years distant. 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 Egyptians considered Leo the House of the Sun, as when they first charted the stars, Leo was rising with the sun at the solstice, so Leo and Sirius were associated with the heat of summer. With five stars brighter than magnitude 3.0, it is easy to spot, even from areas with some light pollution. The companion is believed to be a white dwarf. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace, SpaceX Dragon debris lights up sky in bright fireball over western US during reentry (video), SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket aborts triple satellite launch at last minute. Regulus, designated as Alpha Leonis, is the brightest star in Leo, and the 21 st brightest star in the night sky, having an apparent magnitude of 1.40. Messier 66, image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (CC BY-SA 4.0). The primary component was once the smaller of the two stars. 2.113), Zosma (Delta Leo, mag. Overall rating. The equatorial diameter of Regulus is 32 percent larger than its polar diameter. A daily update by email. The next brightest star to the ecliptic is Wasat, Delta Geminorum, with a visual magnitude of 3.53. In the last 40 years of his life, he completed over 50 Messier Marathons and wrote 2 books on the subject. Leo constellation is home to the bright stars Regulus and Denebola, the nearby star Wolf 359, and to a number of famous deep sky objects, among them galaxies Messier 65, Messier 66, Messier 95, Messier 96, Messier 105, and NGC 3628. (In Arabic, Qalb al-Asad, anglicized to Kabelaced.) My latest is an analysis of the Njord Skadi myth, from Avalonia Books. Regulus was one of the four Royal Stars of Persia, along with Fomalhaut, Antares, and Aldebaran, the brightest stars in the constellations Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), Scorpius (the Scorpion), and Taurus (the Bull). Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo and Arcturus the brightest in the constellation of Botes, so you could argue Sirius's younger brother was twice as bright. He was the brother of Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, named for the brightest star in the sky. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Messier 96, a spiral galaxy just over 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). [citation needed], Regulus is a multiple star system consisting of at least four stars. Heracles could not defeat the lion with arrows, so he trapped it in its cave, grappled with the beast and eventually defeated it. Rho Leonis has the stellar classification B1 lab, which means that it has reached the supergiant stage of its evolution. Larry Sessions has written many favorite posts in EarthSky's Tonight area. It has a visual magnitude varying from 4.4 to 11.3 with a period of 312 days and is classified as a Mira variable. [34], RegulusA is a binary star consisting of a blue-white subgiant star of spectral type B8, which is orbited by a star of at least 0.3solar masses, which is probably a white dwarf. Regulus isn't a single star, but rather a quadruple star system composed out of two stars organized into two pairs. Another mystery is the source of its extremely rapid spin and strange motion. A and BC share a common proper motion and are thought to orbit each other[5] taking several million years. The galaxy is classified as a double-barred spiral with a small inner bulge through the centre along with an outer bulge. [31] The star can be viewed the whole night, crossing the sky, in late February. Filter by rating. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun. Messier 65, image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (CC BY-SA 4.0). Messier 96 is a very asymmetric galaxy; its dust and gas is unevenly spread throughout its weak spiral arms, and its core is not exactly at the galactic centre. Mu Leonis belongs to the spectral class K3. The two stars are separated by about 100 astronomical units, or 2.5 arc seconds. NGC 3842 is an elliptical galaxy, notable for having one of the largest black holes known. Also, with a rotation period of 15.9 hours, Regulus is a lot faster than the Sun. NGC 3593, image: NASA/ESA The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA): Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) zoranknez (Aladin software). (CC BY 4.0). Greek mythology. Science news, great photos, sky alerts. Retrieved from https://theplanets.org/stars/regulus-star/. 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. The heliacal rising of Regulus (rising just before the dawn after a period of invisibility) occurs in early September. Messier 95 is a barred spiral galaxy in Leo. 1. Regulus can be used to find several bright galaxies that lie in the region of the sky between the Lions heart and the fainter Denebola, Beta Leonis, the star that marks the Lions tail. Persian mythology: Regulus is one of 4 royal stars. Regulus is easy to find and identify because it is part of a prominent asterism known as the Sickle of Leo. It was first discovered by astronomer Pierre Mchain in 1781, and added to Charles Messiers famous catalogue of astronomical objects just four days later. It has a visual magnitude of 10.67 and is 33.1 light years distant. Its extended envelope is believed to have at least 1.4 solar masses of ejected material. Cor Caroli is another name for Regulus. Leo 1 is a dwarf galaxy, and a member of our local group. The Leonids usually peak on November 17-18 every year and have a radiant near the bright star Gamma Leonis. R Leonis is a red giant star of the spectral type M8IIIe. Babylonians knew the star Regulus as the star that stands at the Lions breast, or the King Star. Regulus A has a right ascension of 10h 08m 22.311s and a declination of +11 58 01.95. Save. Fittingly, King Richard I of England was also famously known as the Lionheart, or more commonly Couer de Lion in French. The asteroid 166 Rhodope, discovered in August 1876, was observed occulting Regulus by a team of researchers on October 19, 2005. It is the 22nd brightest star, although the 21st, Alpha Centauri, is not much brighter than it is. NGC 3628, image: Pablo Carlos Budassi (CC BY-SA 4.0). It is easy to observe in a small telescope under good conditions and appears as a bright double star with orange red and greenish yellow components. How are Hubble Space Telescope images made? There is probably another companion as well, according to one research team that did measurements of the spin of Regulus. Leo 1 is difficult to see due to its proximity to Regulus. Regulus appears singular, but is actually a quadruple star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. 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. The galaxy resembles a giant maelstrom of glowing gas, rippled with dark dust that swirls inwards towards the nucleus. Both the constellation and its brightest star were well-known in most ancient cultures. 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. Some Peruvians also knew these stars as the Mountain Lion, whereas in China it was sometimes seen as a horse, and at other times as part of a dragon. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. Leo represents the lion and is usually associated with the Nemean lion in Greek mythology. Along with Messier 65 and Messier 66, NGC 3628 forms the Leo Triplet galaxy group. They have a combined apparent magnitude of 3.53. The two components in the Omicron Leonis system belong to the spectral classes F9III (a giant) and A5mV (a main sequence star). Nevertheless, Messier 95 also makes for a spectacular image. Rho Leonis is another binary star in Leo. Can you believe it? Regulus' location is: One of the earliest references to Regulus was in ancient Persia, around 3000 B.C. The light output is dominated by Regulus A. Regulus B, if seen in isolation, would be a binocular object of magnitude +8.1, and its companion, Regulus C, the faintest of the three stars that has been directly observed, would require a substantial telescope to be seen, at magnitude +13.5. It has a visual magnitude of 10.2 and is approximately 32 million light years distant. Search reviews. It is the 22nd brightest star, although the 21st, Alpha Centauri, is not much brighter than it is. Regulus in persian mythology was the Guardian of the north and it's Angelic counterpart being Archangel Michael. The star can easily be seen without binoculars. In Latin, the name "Regulus" means "little king." 4 stars. Regulus is the luminary of the constellation Leo. In Indian astronomy, Regulus corresponds to the Nakshatra Magha ("the bountiful"). The January Leonids are a minor shower that peaks between January 1 and 7. It has a visual magnitude of 2.98 and is the fifth brightest star in the constellation Leo. It's the brightest star in the constellation and among the brightest in Earth's night sky. The 2018 Gaia data release 2 revealed it to be a background object, not physically related to the Regulus system. This name was used by the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. In Persian astronomy, the sky was divided into four districts and each district was guarded by one of the four bright stars. In the MUL.APIN, a catalogue of stars and constellations in Babylon, Regulus was listed as LUGAL. The brighter giant is 180 times more luminous than the Sun and has an apparent magnitude of 2.28. New York, Denebola has 75% more mass than the Sun, 173% of the solar radius, and is 12 times more luminous. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science since 2015. 2.98), Chertan (Theta Leo, mag. The neighboring constellations are Cancer, Coma Berenices, Crater, Hydra, Leo Minor, Lynx, Sextans, Ursa Major and Virgo. Stretching across 947 square degrees of the sky, it is the third largest zodiac constellation (after Virgo and Aquarius) and the 12th largest of all constellations. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. This article is about the star. The stars in the galaxys central region are very old. The stars projected rotational velocity is 128 km/s. It's the brightest star in the constellation and among the brightest in Earth's night sky. This refers to the star that stands in the breast of the Lion: the King. 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. We left my fathers precious urologist because of the wait time . . This phenomenon occurs mostly in barred spiral galaxies such as Messier 95 and our home, the Milky Way. Regulus B, and its companion star, Regulus C are dimmer main sequence stars that are bound together by gravity. Amateur astronomers can view it, but this requires dark skies and a large telescope. Regulus is the faintest of the 22 first-magnitude stars. The star is suspected to be a part of a binary system.

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