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Menkalinan (Beta Aurigae)
The third brightest star in the constellation Auriga; its Arabic name (also written as Menkarlina) means "the shoulder of the rein-holder." Menkalinan lies just 0.5 arc-minute away from the solstitial colure, the great circle in the sky that passes through both celestial poles and the summer and winter solstices. Menkarlinan is a binary system consisting of two almost identical subgiant A stars in a tight orbit that, every 3.96 days, results in a partial eclipse of one star by the other by about a tenth of a magnitude. The twins, each about 48 times more luminous than the Sun, are separated by only about one-fifth the distance between the Sun and Mercury. So close are they, that they distort each other into an ellipsoidal shape through mutual tides. A faint red dwarf, well below naked-eye visibilit, appears to orbit the pair at least 330 AU away.
| Visual magnitude | 1.90 |
| Absolute magnitude | -0.11 |
| Spectral type | A2V |
| Surface temperature | 9,200 K |
| Luminosity | 95 Lsun |
| Distance | 82 light-years |
| Position | R.A. 05h 59m 32s, Dec: +44° 56' 51" |
Related category
• NOTABLE STARS
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