A-type star · white star

Tau Cen

Tau Cen is a white star in the constellation Centaurus 131 ly from Earth. Its surface is about 9,552 K, about 1.7 times the Sun's surface temperature, and it shines at 40.66× the Sun's brightness. At magnitude 3.9 it is bright enough to see with the naked eye; the light you see left it 131 years ago.

131 lybrightness mag 3.85A2V

Also catalogued as HR 4802 · HD 109787 · HIP 61622

9,552 K
temperature
3.85
apparent magnitude
40.66× ☉
luminosity vs Sun
A2V
spectral type
Distance & comparison with our Sun
131 years
at light speed from Earth
1.65×
as hot as the Sun
40.66×
the Sun's light output
0.83
absolute magnitude
Explore from here · roam the neighborhood
Tau CenA-type
Sky regionCentaurusthis direction
StarGamma Cen2.0 ly
StarHR 490312 ly
StarHR 474920 ly
StarMenkentstar
StarEpsilon Censtar
Nearest stars
Bright stars in Centaurus
Can you see it tonight?
VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE
Brightness mag 3.9To see it no equipment neededLook toward Centaurus

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.