Star
Elnath
Blue-white star · B7III
β Tauri · Taurus
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Beta Tauri is the second-brightest star in the constellation of Taurus. It has the official name Elnath; Beta Tauri is the current Bayer designation, which is Latinised from β Tauri and abbreviated Beta Tau or β Tau. The original designation of Gamma Aurigae is now rarely used. It is a chemically peculiar B7 giant star, 134 light years away from the Sun with an apparent magnitude of 1.65.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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Key facts
Distance
~134 light-years
Apparent mag.
+1.65
Spectral type
B7III
Luminosity
321 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−1.42
Catalogue
HIP 25428
Spectral type
B7III
True colour from its B–V index (-0.13): a surface around 12100 K.
Did you know
- Elnath is also known as β Tauri.
- Its spectral type B7III marks it as a blue-white star.
- It lies in the constellation Taurus.
