HD 17943
// A4V white main-sequence star
Pours out about 25× as much light as the Sun.
// Data-inspired illustration— not a photograph
Common30%
- ◆ Spectral type
- A4V
- ◆ Luminosity
- 24.8 × the Sun
- ◆ Distance
- 318.5 light-yearsmeasured
- ◆ Constellation
- Eridanus
// Time capsule
The light in this view left its source around 1707 CE, when the first practical steam engines were being built.
See it. Aladin sky atlas·SIMBAD record
◆ Discovery points11,928
Top 40% for a star16
- +2,696RareNaked-Eye Objectapparent magnitude 6.5 or brighter
- +2,216RareSirius's ClassA-type stars are the classic brilliant white stars: Sirius, Vega and Deneb all belong here.
- +2,216RareFirst PortraitVega, an A star, was the first star other than the Sun ever photographed, in 1850.
- +709UncommonHotter Than the Sunspectral class O, B, A or F, or a surface above 6,000 K
- +579UncommonWithin Reachwithin 500 light-years
- +528UncommonOn the Equatorwithin 15° of the celestial equator — visible worldwide
- +507UncommonMain-Sequence Starstill fusing hydrogen in its core, like the Sun — the commonest kind of star
- +487UncommonAbove the Galaxymore than 45° off the Milky Way's plane — a clear line out of the galaxy
- +333CommonStar StuffEvery atom in your body heavier than helium was forged inside a star and scattered when it died.
- +333CommonAbove AverageThe Sun is not an average star — most stars in the galaxy are smaller, cooler and fainter than it.
- +333CommonNo Twinkle Up HereStars don't twinkle in space. The shimmer you see is Earth's atmosphere bending their light on the way down.
- +333CommonThe Long MiddleA star spends about 90% of its life quietly fusing hydrogen; the dramatic parts all come at the very end.
- +223CommonSouthern Skysits south of the celestial equator
- +163CommonInside the Milky Waycloser than 100,000 light-years — still within our own galaxy
- +162CommonAncient Constellationin a constellation catalogued by Ptolemy nearly 2,000 years ago
- +110CommonCatalogue Designationknown only by a survey or catalogue label, never given a name