Lesson plan
2 Centauri
2 Centauri is a single star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, located approximately 183 light-years from Earth. It has the Bayer designation g Centauri; 2 Centauri is the Flamsteed designation. This object is visible to the naked eye as faint, red-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of about 4.2. It is moving away from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of +41 km/s. The star is a member of the HR 1614 supercluster. for V806 Centauri. The main plot shows the long term variability from Hipparcos data, and the inset plot shows the variability over the 26.5 day period, using data from Tabur et al. (2009). The green curve shows the best-fit sine wave, which has an amplitude of 18 millimagnitudes. This is an evolved red giant star with a stellar classification of M5 III. In 1951, Alan William James Cousins announced that the star, then called g Centauri, is a variable star. It was given its variable star designation, V806 Centauri, in 1978. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.16 to +4.26 with a period of 12.57 days. The star has around 82 times the Sun's radius and is radiating 767 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of .
Article summary
2 Centauri is a single star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, located approximately 183 light-years from Earth. It has the Bayer designation g Centauri; 2 Centauri is the Flamsteed designation. This object is visible to the naked eye as faint, red-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of about 4.2. It is moving away from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of +41 km/s. The star is a member of the HR 1614 supercluster. for V806 Centauri. The main plot shows the long term variability from Hipparcos data, and the inset plot shows the variability over the 26.5 day period, using data from Tabur et al. (2009). The green curve shows the best-fit sine wave, which has an amplitude of 18 millimagnitudes. This is an evolved red giant star with a stellar classification of M5 III. In 1951, Alan William James Cousins announced that the star, then called g Centauri, is a variable star. It was given its variable star designation, V806 Centauri, in 1978. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.16 to +4.26 with a period of 12.57 days. The star has around 82 times the Sun's radius and is radiating 767 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of .
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.