Arcturus
Orange giant · Alpha Bootis
Brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere
An aging orange giant about 25 times the Sun's diameter, Arcturus is the brightest star north of the celestial equator and speeds through the galaxy on an unusual orbit shared by an old stellar stream.
Illustration generated from temperature, not a photograph
1.3 ☉
mass (the Sun = 1)
215 ×
as bright as the Sun
4,251 K
surface · orange
25 R☉
radius (the Sun = 1)
37 ly
from Earth
-0.1
apparent magnitude
It pours out about 215 times the Sun’s light. Its light has been travelling 37 years to reach us, so you see Arcturus as it was 37 years ago.
Source · View on Wikidata
It lives in
Milky Way
Barred spiral galaxy.
Other notable stars in Milky Way
Eta CarinaeLuminous blue variableAlnilamBlue supergiantVY Canis MajorisRed hypergiantAlnitakHot blue supergiantDenebBlue-white supergiantMintakaHot blue giant multiple star
Stars of similar brightness
AlgolBlue-white eclipsing binary182 ×RegulusBlue-white main-sequence star341 ×AldebaranOrange giant439 ×AlphardOrange giant971 ×AchernarBlue-white main-sequence star1 thousand ×VegaBlue-white main-sequence star40 ×
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→