A-type star · white star

Pherkad

Pherkad is a white star in the constellation Ursa Minor 487 ly from Earth. Its surface is about 9,455 K, about 1.6 times the Sun's surface temperature, and it shines at 1,225× the Sun's brightness. At magnitude 3.0 it is bright enough to see with the naked eye; the light you see left it 487 years ago.

487 lybrightness mag 3.00A3II-III

Also catalogued as Gamma UMi · HR 5735 · HD 137422 · HIP 75097

9,455 K

temperature

3.00

apparent magnitude

1,225× ☉

luminosity vs Sun

A3II-III

spectral type

Distance & comparison with our Sun

487 years

at light speed from Earth

1.64×

as hot as the Sun

1,225×

the Sun's light output

-2.87

absolute magnitude

Explore from here · roam the neighborhood

PherkadA-type

Sky regionUrsa Minorthis direction

Nearest stars

Bright stars in Ursa Minor

Can you see it tonight?

VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE

Brightness mag 3.0To see it no equipment neededLook toward Ursa Minor

Star data from the HYG database v4.2 (Astronexus, CC BY-SA 4.0). Temperature and colour computed by gravityfinder from the B-V colour index; the illustration is generated from that temperature, not a photograph.