FP Virginis Star Facts (Distance, Colour & more)

FP Virginis is a Giant Star that is located in the constellation of Virgo. Based on the spectral type (M4III) of the star, the FP Virginis colour is red . It is not part of the Virgo constellation outline but is within the borders of the constellation.

The star can not be seen by the naked eye, you need a telescope to see it.

FP Virginis is located in the Milky Way galaxy, this is the galaxy that you reside in. In case you're wondering, FP Virginis is not located within the Solar System, there is only one star in the Solar System and that is the Sun.

There are no known exoplanets in orbit round the star, there might or might not be any but due to their size compared to the star, they'll be very hard to spot compared to other smaller stars hence why none have been spotted around a supergiant.

No one has visited FP Virginis and we have no probes on a rendezvous with the star.

Using the most recent figures given by the 2007 Hipparcos data, FP Virginis distance from Earth is 1042.06 light years. When you look at FP Virginis, you are in fact looking back in time, you are seeing how it looks years ago. Roughly, change the distance from light years to years, that will tell you how long ago we are looking at the star.

FP Virginis 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 FP Virginis, the location is 13h 35m 52.08 and +08° 17` 33.9 .

FP Virginis Radial Velocity and Proper Motion

FP Virginis 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 6.66 ± 0.63 milliarcseconds/year towards the north and -43.77 ± 1.05 milliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.

FP Virginis Radial Velocity

The Radial Velocity, that is the speed at which the star is moving away the Sun is 31.17000 km/s with an error of about 0.31 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.

FP Virginis Physical Properties

FP Virginis Colour

Based on the star's spectral type of M4III , FP Virginis's colour and type is red giant star.

There is no relationship between colour and size, a red star can be both the largest and the smallest stars in the Universe. Small stars are more energy efficient than larger stars and live longer.

FP Virginis Temperature

Based on the spectral type as we don't have the exact temperature', we can deduce that the surface temperature of the star is in the order of below 3,500K 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.

• Blue (O) > 25,000K
• Blue/White (B) = 10,000 - 25,000K
• Blue/White (A) = 7,500 - 10,000K
• Yellow/White (F) = 6,000 - 7,500K
• Yellow (G) = 5,000 - 6,000K
• Orange/Red (K) = 3,500 - 5000K
• Red (M) = < 3,500K
• Red (C) = < 3,500K

There is a relationship between colour and temperature, stars that are closer to red in the rainbow spectrum are cooler whereas those closer to blue are hotter. Those that are blue stars are normally identified as being young stars whereas redder stars are usually older stars, ones that are at the end of their life. An example of when its a Blue Straggler, the star has stolen matter from a nearby star and grown to appear youthful when its not. These stars are found mainly in Star Clusters.

FP Virginis Radius

FP Virginis estimated radius has been calculated as being 61.057 times bigger than the Sun. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 42,483,476.655.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 24.987. 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.

FP Virginis Apparent (Brightness) and Absolute Magnitudes

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.

FP Virginis apparent magnitude is 6.93, 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, FP Virginis absolute magnitude is -2.53 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, FP Virginis absolute magnitude is -0.59.

Visible from Earth

FP Virginis cannot be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, it is just too far and too dim to be seen. Only objects with a magnitude of 6.5 or less can be seen on a clear night.

FP Virginis Distance from Earth

Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 1.28000 which means FP Virginis distance from Earth is 2548.15 light years away from Earth or 781.25 parsecs. If you want that in miles, it is about 14,979,619,244,677,815.822, based on 1 Ly = 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles.

In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 3.13000 which puts FP Virginis distance from Earth as 1042.06 light years or 319.49 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 65,899,083.757 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.

Alternative Names and Meanings

• HIP66345 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue.
• The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD118289. 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-892-430-1. The catalogue lists 2 millions stars and its homepage is E.S.A.
• 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+09 2785.
• The two letters at the start identify that the star is a variable star. The letters are allocated as the next in the list up e.g. GH follow GG, all the way up to ZZ then a V and a number is the next in the order.

FP Virginis 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.

Description	Speed (m.p.h.)	Time (years)
Walking	4	174,705,691,103.935
Car	120	5,823,523,036.798
Airbus A380	736	949,487,451.652
Mach 1	767.269	910,792,387.566
Mach 2	1,534.54	455,395,600.255
New Horizons	33,000	21,176,447.407
Speed of Light	670,616,629	1,042.06

Variable Type

The star is a Semiregular late- (M variable type which means that its size changes over time. The Variable Type is usually named after the first star of that type to be spotted. FP Virginis brightness ranges from a magnitude of 7.056 to a magnitude of 6.548 over its variable period. The smaller the magnitude, the brighter the star. Its variable/pulsating period lasts for 0.5 days (variability).

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.

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