REGULUS

'Regulus' (α Leo / α Leonis / Alpha Leonis) is the brightest star in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky.
Regulus is approximately 77.5 light years from Earth’s Solar System. Its name is Latin for “prince” or “little king.” It is also known as 'Qalb Al Asad', from Arabic 'قلب الأسد' ''qalb[u] al-´asad'', meaning “the heart of the lion.” This phrase is sometimes approximated as 'Kabelaced', or translated into Latin as 'Cor Leonis'.
In Hindu astronomy, Regulus corresponds to the Nakshatra Magha. Regulus is considered the last first magnitude star in the sky because the next brightest star, Adhara, has a magnitude of 1.50, officially making it a second magnitude star. Of the brightest stars in the sky, Regulus is closest to the ecliptic, and the sun makes its closest approach around August 23 of each year. This fact also means that Regulus is regularly occulted by the Moon. It’s known as 轩辕十四 (the Fourteenth Star of Xuanyuan) in Chinese. Xuanyuan is the name of Yellow Emperor.
Regulus has about 3.5 times the Sun’s mass, and is a young star only a few hundred million years old. It is spinning extremely rapidly, with a rotation period of only 15.9 hours, which causes it to have a highly oblate shape.^[1] This results in gravity darkening: its poles are considerably hotter and five times as bright (per unit surface area) than its equator. If it were rotating only 16% faster the centripetal force of gravity would not be enough to keep it from tearing itself apart.
This star has a pair of small, faint companions in the form of a multiple star system. These stars are separated by about 100 AUs and orbit each other every 2,000 years. This pair is separated from the much larger Regulus A by about 4,200 AU and orbits the main star with a period of over 130,000 years.

Contents

Astrology

See also

References

External links

Astrology

Regulus was one of the four “royal stars” of the Persians around 3000 BC. It was one of the fifteen Behenian stars to medieval astrologers, associated with granite, mugwort, and the kabbalistic symbol .
In the religion of Stregheria, Regulus is a fallen angel and quarter guardian of the southern gate.

See also

★ Regulus in fiction

References

1. First Results from the CHARA Array. I. An Interferometric and Spectroscopic Study of the Fast Rotator Alpha Leonis (Regulus)., McAlister, H. A., ten Brummelaar, T. A., et al., , , The Astrophysical Journal, 2005


★ Fred Schaaf, “Secrets of the Lion’s heart,” ''Sky & Telescope'', April 2006.

External links

★ Astronomers: ‘Bullet star’ shines 350 times brighter than the sun

★ Portrait of a Star on the Edge

★ Egg-Shaped Regulus is Spinning Fast

★ Regulus as Astronomy Picture of the Day of 19th june 2006

★ Regulus 3