Star
Acrux
Blue-white star · B0.5IV
α1 Crux · Crux
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Acrux is a multiple star system and the brightest star in the southern constellation of Crux. It has the Bayer designation α Crucis, which is Latinised to Alpha Crucis and abbreviated Alpha Cru or α Cru. With a combined visual magnitude of +0.76, it is the 13th-brightest star in the night sky. It is the most southerly star of the asterism known as the Southern Cross and is the southernmost first-magnitude star, 2.3 degrees more southerly than Alpha Centauri. This system is located at a distance of 348 light-years from the Sun.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~322 light-years
Apparent mag.
+0.77
Spectral type
B0.5IV
Luminosity
4,176 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−4.20
Catalogue
HIP 60718
Spectral type
B0.5IV
True colour from its B–V index (-0.24): a surface around 14600 K.
Did you know
- Acrux is also known as α1 Crux.
- Its spectral type B0.5IV marks it as a blue-white star.
- It lies in the constellation Crux.
