Adhara
Adhara
(ădhâr`ə), bright star in the constellation Canis MajorCanis Major[Lat.,=greater dog], constellation lying near the celestial equator, SE of Orion. Known as the Large Dog (Canis Minor is the Small Dog), it was associated with the figure of a dog by many cultures; the ancient Greeks identified it as one of Orion's hunting dogs,
..... Click the link for more information. ; Bayer designation ε Canis Majoris; 1992 position R.A. 6h58.3m, Dec. −31°54'. A bluish-white giant (spectral class B2 II) with apparent magnitudemagnitude,
in astronomy, measure of the brightness of a star or other celestial object. The stars cataloged by Ptolemy (2d cent. A.D.), all visible with the unaided eye, were ranked on a brightness scale such that the brightest stars were of 1st magnitude and the dimmest stars
..... Click the link for more information. 1.5, it is one of the 25 brightest stars in the sky. Adhara is a visual binary starbinary star
or binary system,
pair of stars that are held together by their mutual gravitational attraction and revolve about their common center of mass. In 1650 Riccioli made the first binary system discovery, that of the middle star in the Big Dipper's handle, Zeta
..... Click the link for more information. with combined luminosity about 8,000 times that of the sun; its distance is about 700 light-years. The name is from the Arabic meaning "virgin."