ACHERNAR
DISTANCE: 140 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.50 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: B3 Vpe
Data from the Hipparcos mission puts Achernar at about 140 light-years away. It is a B3V star, meaning that it belongs to the ranks of “normal” stars known as the “main sequence,” but it is much hotter and brighter than the sun.
In fact, it is nearly 1100 times as bright, visually, as our neighborhood star. Brighter, hotter (and bluer) than the sun, Achernar produces more energy in the non-visible ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. When you take this into consideration, it pumps out some 3,000 to as much as 5,000 times the solar energy level. The discrepancy is due to an uncertainty in the amount of UV radiation it produces.
DISTANCE: 140 ly
APPARENT MAGNITUDE: 0.50 m
SPECTRAL CLASS: B3 Vpe
Data from the Hipparcos mission puts Achernar at about 140 light-years away. It is a B3V star, meaning that it belongs to the ranks of “normal” stars known as the “main sequence,” but it is much hotter and brighter than the sun.
In fact, it is nearly 1100 times as bright, visually, as our neighborhood star. Brighter, hotter (and bluer) than the sun, Achernar produces more energy in the non-visible ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. When you take this into consideration, it pumps out some 3,000 to as much as 5,000 times the solar energy level. The discrepancy is due to an uncertainty in the amount of UV radiation it produces.
