Alpha Equulei
Encyclopedia
Alpha Equulei 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....

 Equuleus
Equuleus
Equuleus is a constellation. Its name is Latin for 'little horse', a foal. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It is the second smallest of the modern constellations , spanning only 72 square degrees...

. It has the traditional name Kitalpha (rarely Kitel Phard or Kitalphar), a contraction of the 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...

 name قطعة الفرس "a piece of the horse".

In Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, , meaning Emptiness
Emptiness (Chinese constellation)
The Emptiness mansion is one of the Twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the northern mansions of the Black Tortoise.-Asterisms:...

 (asterism)
, refers to an asterism consisting of α Equulei and β Aquarii
Beta Aquarii
Beta Aquarii is a triple star in the constellation Aquarius. It has the traditional name Sadalsuud, from an Arabic expression سعد السعود sa‘d al-su‘ūd, the "luck of lucks"...

. Consequently, α Equulei itself is known as

Alpha Equulei collectively belongs to 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...

 G0III 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...

 +3.92 and a luminosity
Luminosity
Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...

 approximately 75 times that of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

. Alpha Equulei is a unique spectroscopic binary star consisting of two components. Kitalpha is approximately 186 light years from Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.
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