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Star profile

Xi 2 Centauri

Hot blue star
3D likeness based on its real data · class B · ~15,000 K

What is Xi 2 Centauri

Xi-2 Centauri is a blue triple system 467 light-years away, with an inner pair orbiting in just seven and a half days and a third, cooler companion sitting twenty-five arcseconds away. The primary is a B1.5 star carrying eight solar masses and shining with 1,700 times the Sun's luminosity at nearly 21,000 kelvin. The inner binary was discovered in 1910 by American astronomer Joseph Haines Moore.

Where it is and when to see it

Xi 2 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.

Find it on the sky map

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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

If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.

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 2 Centauri

Constellation
Centaurus
Apparent magnitude
4.27
Distance
467.3 light years
Coordinates (J2000)
RA 196.728° · Dec -49.906°
Catalogue
HIP 64004 · HD 113791

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.

See all 174 stars in Centaurus