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Fomalhaut

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the "Southern Fish". It is and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Piscis Austrini. It is a class A star on the main sequence. Fomalhaut is located about 25 light years from the Sun as measured by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite.[1] Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified.[2]

DSS Image of Fomalhaut (high resolution)

It is classified as a Vega-like star that throws out excess infrared radiation. This shows that the star is surrounded by a circumstellar disk.[3] Fomalhaut, Fomalhaut b, and red dwarf star Formalhaut c make up a triple system, even though they are separated by about 8 degrees.[4][5]

References

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  1. "CERN Document Server". cds.cern.ch. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  2. "U of T Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics |". Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  3. Mennesson, B.; Absil, O.; Lebreton, J.; Augereau, J.-C.; Serabyn, E.; Colavita, M. M.; Millan-Gabet, R.; Liu, W.; Hinz, P.; Thebault, P. (2013-01-16). "An interferometric study of the Fomalhaut inner debris disk II. Keck Nuller mid-infrared observations". The Astrophysical Journal. 763 (2): 119. arXiv:1211.7143. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/763/2/119. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 102339596.
  4. Mamajek, Eric E.; Bartlett, Jennifer L.; Seifahrt, Andreas; Henry, Todd J.; Dieterich, Sergio B.; Lurie, John C.; Kenworthy, Matthew A.; Jao, Wei-Chun; Riedel, Adric R.; Subasavage, John P.; Winters, Jennifer G. (2013-11-08). "The Solar Neighborhood XXX: Fomalhaut C". The Astronomical Journal. 146 (6): 154. arXiv:1310.0764. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/146/6/154. ISSN 0004-6256. S2CID 67821813.
  5. "Fomalhaut: A Crazy-Wide Triple Star". Sky & Telescope. 2014-10-01. Retrieved 2022-11-16.