Star
Hamal
Orange star · K2III
α Arietis · Aries
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Hamal,, is a star in the northern zodiacal constellation of Aries. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Arietis, which is Latinized from α Arietis and abbreviated Alpha Ari or α Ari. This star is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.0. Hamal is the brightest star in the constellation and, on average, the 50th-brightest star in the night sky. Based upon parallax measurements made with the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, Hamal is about 65.8 light-years from Earth. It is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −14 km/s.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~65.8 light-years
Apparent mag.
+2.01
Spectral type
K2III
Luminosity
55.7 × Sun
Absolute mag.
+0.49
Catalogue
HIP 9884
Spectral type
K2III
True colour from its B–V index (1.15): a surface around 4400 K.
Did you know
- Hamal is also known as α Arietis.
- Its spectral type K2III marks it as a orange star.
- It lies in the constellation Aries.
