Star
Hadar
Blue-white star · B1III
β Centauri · Centaurus
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Beta Centauri is a triple star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It is officially called Hadar. The Bayer designation of Beta Centauri is Latinised from β Centauri, and abbreviated Beta Cen or β Cen. The system's combined apparent visual magnitude of 0.61 makes it the second-brightest object in Centaurus and the eleventh brightest star in the night sky. According to dynamical parallax measurements, the distance to this system is about 361 light-years.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~392 light-years
Apparent mag.
+0.61
Spectral type
B1III
Luminosity
7,171 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−4.79
Catalogue
HIP 68702
Spectral type
B1III
True colour from its B–V index (-0.23): a surface around 14400 K.
Did you know
- Hadar is also known as β Centauri.
- Its spectral type B1III marks it as a blue-white star.
- It lies in the constellation Centaurus.
