Alphard (Alpha Hydrae, 30 Hydrae) Star Facts

Facts

• Alphard is a Giant Star type star. Alphard is a K3 II-III giant star based on the spectral type that was recorded in the Michigan Catalogue of Two-Dimensional Spectral Types for the HD stars, Vol. 5.
• Alphard is a main star in the constellation Hydra and makes up the constellation outline.
• Based on the spectral type (K3 II-III) of the star, the star's colour is orange to red .
• Alphard is the 47th brightest star in the night sky and is the brightest star in Hydra based on the Hipparcos 2007 apparent magnitude. The star can be seen with the naked eye, that is, you don't need a telescope/binoculars to see it.
• Alphard is a Binary or Multiple star system.
• Using the most recent figures given by the 2007 Hipparcos data, the star is 180.30 light years away from Earth.
• The star's name is a traditional/name which has been officially recognised by the I.A.U.

Location

The location of the giant star in the night sky is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), these are equivalent to the Longitude and Latitude on the Earth. The Right Ascension is how far expressed in time (hh:mm:ss) the star is along the celestial equator. If the R.A. is positive then its eastwards. The Declination is how far north or south the object is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. For Alphard, the location is 09h 27m 35.25 and -08° 39` 31.3 .

Radial Velocity and Proper Motion

Proper Motion

All stars like planets orbit round a central spot, in the case of planets, its the central star such as the Sun. In the case of a star, its the galactic centre. The constellations that we see today will be different than they were 50,000 years ago or 50,000 years from now. Proper Motion details the movements of these stars and are measured in milliarcseconds. The star is moving 34.37 ± 0.11 milliarcseconds/year towards the north and -15.23 ± 0.18 milliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.

Radial Velocity

The Radial Velocity, that is the speed at which the star is moving away/towards the Sun is -4.70000 km/s with an error of about 0.10 km/s . When the value is negative then the star and the Sun are getting closer to one another, likewise, a positive number means that two stars are moving away. Its nothing to fear as the stars are so far apart, they won't collide in our life-time, if ever.

Physical Properties

Colour and Temperature

Based on the star's spectral type of K3 II-III , Alphard's colour and type is orange to red giant star. Based on the spectral type, we can deduce that the surface temperature of the star is in the order of between 3,500 and 5,000K based on the notes from Harvard University. To put this in context, the temperature of our Sun is about 5,778 Kelvin as said by Google.

Luminosity

Luminosity is the amount of energy that a star pumps out and its relative to the amount that our star, the Sun gives out. The figure of 1,051.53 that I have given is based on the value in the Simbad Hipparcos Extended Catalogue at the University of Strasbourg from 2012.

Radius

Alphard estimated radius has been calculated as being 40.44 times bigger than the Sun. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 28,139,795.21.km. If you need the diameter of the star, you just need to multiple the radius by 2. However with the 2007 release of updated Hipparcos files, the radius is now calculated at being round 41.00. The figure is derived at by using the formula from SDSS rather than peer reviewed papers. It has been known to produce widely incorrect figures.

Alphard Iron Abundance

Alphard Iron Abundance is -0.03 with an error value of 9.99 Fe/H with the Sun has a value of 1 to put it into context. The value comes from the Hipparcos Extended Catalog.

Apparent (Brightness) and Absolute Magnitudes

Alphard has an apparent magnitude of 1.99, this is a measure of the brightness of the star as seen from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude. If you used the 1997 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of -1.69 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of -1.72.

Absolute Magnitude is the apparent magnitude of the star from a distance of 10 parsecs or 32.6 light years. This assumes that there is nothing in between the object and the viewer such as dust clouds. To really compare the brightness of the star, it is best to use Absolute rather than Apparent Magnitude.

Magnitude, whether it be apparent/visual or absolute magnitude is measured by a number, the smaller the number, the brighter the Star is. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.

Distance from Earth

Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 18.40000 which gave the calculated distance to Alphard as 177.26 light years away from Earth or 54.35 parsecs. If you want that in miles, it is about 1,042,045,133,650,526.71, based on 1 Ly = 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles.

In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 18.09000 which put Alphard at a distance of 180.30 light years or 55.28 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from Earth. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.

Using the 2007 distance, the star is roughly 11,402,239.04 Astronomical Units from the Earth/Sun give or take a few. An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The number of A.U. is the number of times that the star is from the Earth compared to the Sun. The star's Galacto-Centric Distance is 7,423.00 Parsecs or 24,211.11 Light Years. The Galacto-Centric Distance is the distance from the star to the Centre of the Galaxy which is Sagittarius A*.

Alternative Names and Meanings

• The Id of the star in the Yale Bright Star Catalogue is HR3748.
• HIP46390 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue.
• The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD81797. The catalogue was started by the American doctor and has been expanded on over the years.
• The star is catalogued in the Tycho-2 star catalogue as TYC-5460-1592-1. The catalogue lists 2 millions stars and its homepage is E.S.A.
• Flamsteed designations such as 30 Hydrae (30 Hya) are named after the creator, Sir John Flamsteed. Sir John named the stars in the constellation with a number and its latin name, this star's Flamsteed designation is 30 Hydrae. The Flamsteed name can be shortened to 30 Hya.
• The Gould star designation is one that was designed by American astronomer, Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Gould stars are predominantly in the Southern and Equatorial constellations but do appear in northern constellations such as Bootes and Orion. There are no stars with a Gould designation in Ursa Major for example.
• BD number is the number that the star was filed under in the Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung, a star catalogue that was put together by the Bonn Observatory between 1859 to 1903. The star's BD Number is BD -08 2680.

Travel Time

The time it will take to travel to this star is dependent on how fast you are going. U.G. has done some calculations as to how long it will take going at differing speeds. A note about the calculations, when I'm talking about years, I'm talking non-leap years only (365 days).

The New Horizons space probe is the fastest probe that we've sent into space at the time of writing. Its primary mission was to visit Pluto which at the time of launch (2006), Pluto was still a planet.

Mach 1 is the speed of sound, Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. Corncorde before it was retired was the fastest commercial airline across the Atlantic and only one that could do Mach 2.

Source of Information

The source of the information if it has a Hip I.D. is from Simbad, the Hipparcos data library based at the University at Strasbourg, France. Hipparcos was a E.S.A. satellite operation launched in 1989 for four years. The items in red are values that I've calculated so they could well be wrong. Information regarding Metallicity and/or Mass is from the E.U. Exoplanets. The information was obtained as of 12th Feb 2017.