61 Cygni moves like shifting positions in the sky.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Many star scattered in the sky. One that interests astronomers is 61 Cygni. 61 Cygni is a double star in the constellation Cygnus. Even though 61 Cygni not prominent in brightness, the celestial body has one of the highest precise motions of any visible star.
Reported from Earth Sky, Monday (9/8), if one were to take a photo of 61 Cygni over a number of years, it would appear to shift position in the sky with respect to a more distant star in the vicinity. This unusual movement across the sky earned 61 Cygni the nickname Flying Star.
61 Cygni moves relatively fast in front of the fixed stars because 61 Cygni is relatively close to Earth. While not the closest star to the sun, 61 Cygni is only 11.4 light-years away. That makes it the fourth closest star visible to the naked eye, after Alpha Centauri, Sirius and Epsilon Eridani.
61 Cygni is not just one star. 61 Cygni is actually a binary system with an orbital period of about 678 years. To the naked eye and through most binoculars, this star appears as a single star. You need a telescope to see them as two stars.
The binary system 61 Cygni is the 28th closest system known to man. Both are K-type dwarf stars in the main sequence, thought to have formed 6 billion years ago (the sun is 4.6 billion years old).
The more massive star of this pair is 70 percent of the sun’s mass and emits 15 percent of the sun’s total electromagnetic energy. Its companion is 63 percent of the sun’s mass and shines only 8.5 percent of the sun’s luminosity. Both are slightly more than half the size of the sun.
– .
