Tau Eridani
Encyclopedia
Tau Eridani is a group of fairly widely scattered 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...

s 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....

 Eridanus
Eridanus (constellation)
Eridanus is a constellation. It is represented as a river; its name is the Ancient Greek name for the Po River. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It is the sixth largest of the modern...

.

They form an exception to the general rule that stars that share the same Bayer designation
Bayer designation
A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek letter, followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name...

 are close together: τ1 is nearly 20° away from τ9 (Pi Orionis
Pi Orionis
Pi Orionis is a group of fairly widely scattered stars in the constellation Orion that constitute Orion's shield.They form an exception to the general rule that stars that share the same Bayer designation are close together: π1 is nearly 9° north of π6 .* π1 Ori * π2 Ori * π3 Ori...

 is another example of this).
  • τ1 Eri (aka 1 Eridani)
  • τ2 Eri
    Tau2 Eridani
    Tau2 Eridani is a star in the constellation Eridanus . It is one of a series of stars that share the Bayer designation Tau Eridani...

     (aka 2 Eridani)
  • τ3 Eri (aka 11 Eridani)
  • τ4 Eri
    Tau4 Eridani
    Tau4 Eridani is a Class M3.5III, fourth-magnitude star in the constellation Eridanus. Tau4 Eridani is a binary star system consisting primarily of Class M components, the brightest component being a Class M giant of apparent magnitude 3.66, having a mass and luminosity many times greater than that...

     (aka 16 Eridani)
  • τ5 Eri (aka 19 Eridani)
  • τ6 Eri (aka 27 Eridani)
  • τ7 Eri (aka 28 Eridani)
  • τ8 Eri (aka 33 Eridani)
  • τ9 Eri (aka 36 Eridani)


All of them were member of asterism 天苑 (Tiān Yuàn), Celestial Meadows, Hairy Head
Hairy Head (Chinese constellation)
The Hairy Head mansion is one of the Twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the western mansions of the White Tiger.This mansion corresponds to the Pleiades in English.-Asterisms:...

mansion.
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