Star profile
Xi Tauri
Variable starWhat is Xi Tauri
Xi-2 Tauri belongs to an extraordinary hierarchical quadruple: two blue-white B-type stars form an eclipsing binary that circles every 7.15 days, itself orbited by a third B-type star and, far beyond, by an F companion taking some fifty years to complete its turn. Four suns interlaced 209 light-years away in the Bull, performing a stellar clockwork that only careful spectroscopy has managed to untangle.
Where it is and when to see it
Xi Tauri lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is November: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Xi Tauri
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.73
- Distance
- 209.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 51.792° · Dec 9.733°
- Catalogue
- HIP 16083 · HD 21364
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Taurus
Taurus has 144 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AldebaranAlpha Tauri0.87
- ElnathBeta Tauri1.65
- AlcyoneEta Tauri2.85
- Atlas3.62
- Prima HyadumGamma Tauri3.65
- Electra3.72
- Secunda HyadumDelta 1 Tauri3.77
- Theta 1 Tauri3.84