Star profile
Pi Centauri
Hot blue starWhat is Pi Centauri
Pi Centauri is a blue binary in the Centaur, ruled by a B5 main-sequence star spinning at 340 km per second —so fast its equator bulges 22% over its poles. At 360 light-years, it radiates 783 suns from a surface near 17,000 K. The «n» tag in its classification says it all: spectral lines so smeared by rotation that they look diffuse, almost nebulous.
Where it is and when to see it
Pi Centauri lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is April: 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 Pi Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.90
- Distance
- 357.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 170.252° · Dec -54.491°
- Catalogue
- HIP 55425 · HD 98718
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Centaurus
Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Rigil KentaurusAlpha 1 Centauri-0.01
- HadarBeta Centauri0.61
- TolimanAlpha 2 Centauri1.35
- Phi Centauri3.83
- Tau Centauri3.85
- Upsilon 1 Centauri3.87
- HIP 659363.90
- Sigma Centauri3.91