Alpha Arietis
Sign in to saveAlso known as Hamal, α Arietis, α Ari, 13 Ari, 13 Arietis, LTT 10711, GJ 84.3, GJ 9072
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 from Earth. It is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −14 km/s.
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Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Nomenclature
- Properties
- Planetary system
- In culture
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
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 from Earth. It is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −14 km/s.
This is an aging giant star that is likely to host an orbiting planet with a mass greater than Jupiter.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alpha Arietis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.