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Beta Aquarii
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Beta Aquarii
Beta Aquarii is a single yellow supergiant star in the constellation of Aquarius. It has the official name Sadalsuud (/ˌsædəlˈsuːəd/) and the Bayer designation β Aquarii, abbreviated Beta Aqr or β Aqr. Based upon parallax measurements obtained during the Hipparcos mission, this component is located at a distance of approximately 540 light years (165 parsecs) from the Sun. It is drifting further away with a radial velocity of 6.5 km/s. The star serves as an IAU radial velocity standard.
β Aquarii, Latinised to Beta Aquarii, is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Sadalsuud, from an Arabic expression سعد السعود (sa‘d al-su‘ūd), the "luck of lucks". Other spellings that were sometimes encountered were Sad es Saud, Sadalsund, and Saad el Sund. In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, this star was designated Nir Saad al Saaoud, which was translated into Latin as Lucida Fortunæ Fortunarum (rather identic with R.H. Allen), meaning the brightest of luck of lucks. The International Astronomical Union Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) has approved the name Sadalsuud for the primary or 'A' component.
In Chinese, 虚宿 (Xū Xiù), meaning Emptiness (asterism), refers to an asterism consisting of Beta Aquarii and Alpha Equulei. Consequently, the Chinese name for Beta Aquarii itself is 虛宿一 (Xū Xiù Yī, English: the First Star of Emptiness).
Sadalsuud is found in Hindu texts as Kalpeny and, in the context of the ancient Indian system of astronomy, Jyotisha Veda, is located in the 23rd Nakshatra Shravishthā, a lunar mansion which is ruled by Eight vasus - the "deities of earthly abundance" . On the Euphrates, Sadalsuud was known as Kakkab Nammax, the Star of Mighty Destiny; that may have given origin to the title of the manzil, as well as to the astrologers' name for it — Fortuna Fortunarum.
β Aquarii is the brightest star in Aquarius with an apparent magnitude of 2.87 and a stellar classification of G0 Ib. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. It has an estimated age of 56 million years; old enough for a star of this mass to evolve into a supergiant. The star has about five or six times the mass of the Sun, but it has expanded to 48 times the Sun's radius. It is most likely fusing helium into carbon in its core, and, with insufficient mass to explode as a supernova, will likely end up as a massive white dwarf comparable to Sirius B. It is emitting roughly 2,000 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,608 K, giving it the characteristic yellow hue of G-type stars.
X-ray emissions from the corona of this star have been detected using the Chandra X-ray Observatory; among the first such detections of X-rays for a G-type supergiant. A secondary X-ray source discovered near Beta Aquarii probably has an extragalactic origin. This star belongs to a group of three intermediate mass stars with a space velocity that is carrying them perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. The other members of this grouping are Alpha Aquarii and Eta Pegasi.
β Aquarii appears as a solitary star to the naked eye, but when viewed with a telescope is seen to have two faint optical companions. The first has an apparent magnitude of 11.0. In 1947, the position angle was observed at 321 degrees with a separation from Beta Aquarii of 35.4 arcseconds. The second star has a magnitude of 11.6. Its position angle is 186 degrees with a separation from Beta Aquarii of 57.2 arcseconds. The brighter star is designated component A of this grouping, while the companions are components B and C, respectively. As of 2008, there is no definitive evidence that the three stars form a ternary star system, and Gaia Data Release 2 shows the two companions to be around twice the distance of β Aquarii. All three stars have very different proper motions.
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Beta Aquarii
Beta Aquarii is a single yellow supergiant star in the constellation of Aquarius. It has the official name Sadalsuud (/ˌsædəlˈsuːəd/) and the Bayer designation β Aquarii, abbreviated Beta Aqr or β Aqr. Based upon parallax measurements obtained during the Hipparcos mission, this component is located at a distance of approximately 540 light years (165 parsecs) from the Sun. It is drifting further away with a radial velocity of 6.5 km/s. The star serves as an IAU radial velocity standard.
β Aquarii, Latinised to Beta Aquarii, is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Sadalsuud, from an Arabic expression سعد السعود (sa‘d al-su‘ūd), the "luck of lucks". Other spellings that were sometimes encountered were Sad es Saud, Sadalsund, and Saad el Sund. In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, this star was designated Nir Saad al Saaoud, which was translated into Latin as Lucida Fortunæ Fortunarum (rather identic with R.H. Allen), meaning the brightest of luck of lucks. The International Astronomical Union Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) has approved the name Sadalsuud for the primary or 'A' component.
In Chinese, 虚宿 (Xū Xiù), meaning Emptiness (asterism), refers to an asterism consisting of Beta Aquarii and Alpha Equulei. Consequently, the Chinese name for Beta Aquarii itself is 虛宿一 (Xū Xiù Yī, English: the First Star of Emptiness).
Sadalsuud is found in Hindu texts as Kalpeny and, in the context of the ancient Indian system of astronomy, Jyotisha Veda, is located in the 23rd Nakshatra Shravishthā, a lunar mansion which is ruled by Eight vasus - the "deities of earthly abundance" . On the Euphrates, Sadalsuud was known as Kakkab Nammax, the Star of Mighty Destiny; that may have given origin to the title of the manzil, as well as to the astrologers' name for it — Fortuna Fortunarum.
β Aquarii is the brightest star in Aquarius with an apparent magnitude of 2.87 and a stellar classification of G0 Ib. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. It has an estimated age of 56 million years; old enough for a star of this mass to evolve into a supergiant. The star has about five or six times the mass of the Sun, but it has expanded to 48 times the Sun's radius. It is most likely fusing helium into carbon in its core, and, with insufficient mass to explode as a supernova, will likely end up as a massive white dwarf comparable to Sirius B. It is emitting roughly 2,000 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,608 K, giving it the characteristic yellow hue of G-type stars.
X-ray emissions from the corona of this star have been detected using the Chandra X-ray Observatory; among the first such detections of X-rays for a G-type supergiant. A secondary X-ray source discovered near Beta Aquarii probably has an extragalactic origin. This star belongs to a group of three intermediate mass stars with a space velocity that is carrying them perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. The other members of this grouping are Alpha Aquarii and Eta Pegasi.
β Aquarii appears as a solitary star to the naked eye, but when viewed with a telescope is seen to have two faint optical companions. The first has an apparent magnitude of 11.0. In 1947, the position angle was observed at 321 degrees with a separation from Beta Aquarii of 35.4 arcseconds. The second star has a magnitude of 11.6. Its position angle is 186 degrees with a separation from Beta Aquarii of 57.2 arcseconds. The brighter star is designated component A of this grouping, while the companions are components B and C, respectively. As of 2008, there is no definitive evidence that the three stars form a ternary star system, and Gaia Data Release 2 shows the two companions to be around twice the distance of β Aquarii. All three stars have very different proper motions.
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