Kaus Australis (Epsilon Sagittarii)
The brightest star in the constellation Sagittarius;
it marks the southern (Latin australis) extremity of the Archer's
bow (Arabic kaus) and is also the lower right star of the Milk Dipper
asterism. Deep in the southern hemisphere, 34° below the celestial equator,
the star is not well known to northerners, though it is the 36th brightest
star in the sky. It has traditionally been called a giant and assigned to
the cool end of B, while others have more recently assigned it to hot-end
class A as a bright giant. In any event, the star is much brighter than
its main sequence counterparts and is clearly in a more advanced state.
It probably has a core of helium that is shrinking and heating as it prepares
to fuse to carbon and oxygen. It may also be a sort of shell
star in which its high rotation speed (over 70 times that of the Sun)
was responsible for creating a shell of gas that hides much of the star
within
| visual magnitude |
1.79 |
| absolute magnitude |
-1.45 |
| spectral type |
B9.5III |
| surface temperature |
9,200 K |
| luminosity |
375 Lsun |
| radius |
7 Rsun |
| mass |
4 Msun |
| distance |
145 light-years |
| position |
R.A. 18h 24m 10.3s,
Dec. -34° 23' 5" |
 |
Related categories
• NOTABLE
STARS
• BRIGHTEST
STARS
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