Hadar
Blue giant · Beta Centauri
11th-brightest star in the night sky
Hadar is a brilliant blue giant in Centaurus and, together with nearby Alpha Centauri, serves as one of the southern Pointer stars that direct observers to the Southern Cross. It is a multiple system whose massive components are hot enough to glow blue-white.
Illustration generated from temperature, not a photograph
12.0 ☉
mass (the Sun = 1)
31,623 ×
as bright as the Sun
25,000 K
surface · blue-white star
9 R☉
radius (the Sun = 1)
361 ly
from Earth
0.6
apparent magnitude
Visible to the naked eyeno equipment needed · apparent magnitude 0.6
It pours out about 31,623 times the Sun’s light. Its light has been travelling 361 years to reach us, so you see Hadar as it was 361 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
AcruxBlue subgiant (multiple system)31,117 ×MimosaBlue giant25,704 ×SpicaBlue giant (close binary)20,512 ×BetelgeuseRed supergiant59,979 ×SaiphBlue supergiant60,256 ×HV 2112Red supergiant (Thorne-Zytkow candidate)63,096 ×
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→