Star
Aldebaran
Orange star · K5III
α Tauri · Taurus
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Aldebaran is a red giant star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. It has the Bayer designation α Tauri, which is Latinized to Alpha Tauri and abbreviated Alpha Tau or α Tau. Aldebaran varies in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of 0.75 down to 0.95, making it the brightest star in the constellation, as well as (typically) the fourteenth-brightest star in the night sky. It is at a distance of approximately 67 light-years. The star lies along the line of sight to the nearby Hyades cluster, but is unrelated and much older than the young cluster.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~66.6 light-years
Apparent mag.
+0.87
Spectral type
K5III
Luminosity
163 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−0.68
Catalogue
HIP 21421
Spectral type
K5III
True colour from its B–V index (1.54): a surface around 3700 K.
Did you know
- Aldebaran is also known as α Tauri.
- Its spectral type K5III marks it as a orange star.
- It lies in the constellation Taurus.
