Magnitude 3.75 Apparent magnitude (V) 3.75 | Constellation Hercules | |
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Similar Theta Herculis, Pi Herculis, Kappa Herculis, Mu Herculis | ||
Iota Herculis (ι Her, ι Herculis) is a fourth-magnitude star in the constellation Hercules. The luminary shares an etymological similarity with the star Rigel in the constellation of Orion, as both stars refer to one of the feet of each mythological hero.
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In Chinese, 天棓 (Tiān Bàng), meaning Celestial Flail, refers to an asterism consisting of ι Herculis, ξ Draconis, ν Draconis, β Draconis and γ Draconis. Consequently, ι Herculis itself is known as 天棓五 (Tiān Bàng wu, English: the Fifth Star of Celestial Flail.)
Properties
Iota Herculis is a B-type subgiant star that is at the end of its hydrogen fusion stage. With a stellar classification B3IV, it is considerably larger than the Sun, having a mass that is 6.5 times solar and a radius 5.3 times. Though its apparent magnitude is only 3.79, it is 2,500 times more luminous than the Sun, yielding an absolute magnitude of -2.11, brighter in fact than the most of the hot B stars in the Pleiades open star cluster. The Hipparcos satellite mission estimated its distance at roughly 152 parsecs (pc) from Earth, or 496 light years (ly) away; an updated parallax measurement from Floor van Leeuwen in 2007, however, puts the distance at 455ly with a much tighter error factor of only 8ly.
Star system
Iota Herculis is a multiple star system. It is a spectroscopic binary having a 113.8 day period, indicating that its closest component is separated by about 1 AU. Another companion can be found at approximately 30 AU from the main star, giving it an orbital period of about 60 years. Still another star has been identified orbiting the main star with an angular separation of 116 arcseconds and a visual magnitude of 12.1. This would place it approximately 18,000 AU away, giving it an orbit of about 1 million years.