Aldebaran
Orange giant · Alpha Tauri
Brightest star in Taurus; the eye of the Bull
Aldebaran is a cool orange giant that forms the glaring eye of Taurus the Bull and appears to sit among the Hyades cluster, though it is actually a foreground star less than half their distance away. It is slightly variable in brightness.
Illustration generated from temperature, not a photograph
1.0 ☉
mass (the Sun = 1)
439 ×
as bright as the Sun
3,900 K
surface · orange
45 R☉
radius (the Sun = 1)
65 ly
from Earth
0.8
apparent magnitude
Visible to the naked eyeno equipment needed · apparent magnitude 0.8
It pours out about 439 times the Sun’s light. Its light has been travelling 65 years to reach us, so you see Aldebaran as it was 65 years ago.
Source · Wikidata
It lives in
Milky Way
Barred spiral galaxy.
Other notable stars in the Milky Way
Eta CarinaeLuminous blue variableAlnilamBlue supergiantVY Canis MajorisRed hypergiantAlnitakHot blue supergiantDenebBlue-white supergiantMintakaHot blue giant multiple star
Stars of similar brightness
RegulusBlue-white main-sequence star341 ×ArcturusOrange giant215 ×AlphardOrange giant971 ×AlgolBlue-white eclipsing binary182 ×AchernarBlue-white main-sequence star1,076 ×PolarisYellow supergiant Cepheid variable1,259 ×
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→