Alpha Corvi
Encyclopedia
Alpha Corvi is a star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 in the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Corvus
Corvus (constellation)
Corvus is a small constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for raven or crow. It includes only 11 stars visible to the naked eye...

. It has the traditional names Alchiba (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 ألخبا al hibaa "tent") or Al Minliar al Ghurab .

Al Minliar al Ghurab (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 ألمنخر ألغرب almanxar al ghuurab) or Minkar al Ghyrab appeared in the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket
Al Achsasi al Mouakket
Mohammad Al Achsasi Al Mouakket was an Egyptian astronomer whose calendarium and catalogue of stars, entitled Durret al Muddiah Fih al Aamal al Shamsiah , was written at Cairo about 1650.Al Achsasi was sheikh of the Grand Mosque of the University of Cairo, where his name al...

, which was translated into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 as Rostrum Corvi [beak of the crow].

In Chinese astronomy
Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...

, Alchiba is called 右轄, Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Yòuxiá, meaning Right Linchpin, because this star is marking itself and stand alone in Right Linchpin asterism, Chariot
Chariot (Chinese constellation)
The Chariot mansion is one of the Twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the southern mansions of the Vermilion Bird.-Asterisms:...

 mansion (see : Chinese constellation
Chinese constellation
Chinese constellations are the way the ancient Chinese grouped the stars. They are very different from the modern IAU recognized constellations. This is because the IAU was based on Greco-Roman astronomy instead of Chinese astronomy....

). 右轄 (Yòuxiá), westernized into Yew Hea by R.H. Allen.

Alchiba belongs to the spectral class
Stellar classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...

 F0 and has apparent magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 +4.00. It is 48 light years from Earth. This star is suspected of being a spectroscopic binary, although this has not yet been confirmed.

See also

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