Lambda Sagittarii
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Lambda Sagittarii (Latinized from λ Sagittarii), formally named Kaus Borealis , is a star in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. The star marks the top of the Archer's bow.
Lambda Sagittarii (Latinized from λ Sagittarii), formally named Kaus Borealis , is a star in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. The star marks the top of the Archer's bow.
Properties
With an apparent visual magnitude of +2.81, this is one of the brighter members of the constellation and, according to the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, it is readily visible to the naked eye. Based upon parallax measurements, it is from the Sun. Being 2.1 degrees south of the ecliptic, Lambda Sgr is sometimes occulted by the Moon and, rarely, by a planet. The last planet to pass in front of it was Venus, on 19 November 1984. The previous occasion was 5 December 1865, when it was occulted by Mercury. Kaus Borealis is a giant star with a stellar classification of K1 IIIb. It has a mass 1.8 times that of the Sun and a physical size of about 11.2 times the Sun's radius. This expanded outer envelope is radiating energy at an effective temperature of 4,768 K, causing it to glow with the cool orange hue of a K-type star. It appears to be rotating at a leisurely rate, with a projected rotational velocity of .
Observation
On 17 December 2021, it had a close conjunction (geocentric separation
External links
Kaus Borealis
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377335998 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.