Beta Arietis is a star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Aries

Aries (constellation)

Aries is one of the constellations of the zodiac, located between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. Its name is Latin for ram, and its symbol is , representing a ram's horns...

, marking the Ram's second horn. It has the traditional name Sheratan (or Sharatan, Sheratim), and the Flamsteed designation

Flamsteed designation

Flamsteed designations for stars are similar to Bayer designations, except that they use numbers instead of Greek letters. Each star is assigned a number and the Latin genitive of the constellation it lies in...

 6 Arietis. The traditional name, in full Al Sharatan, is from the Arabic الشراطان aš-šarāţān "the two signs", a reference to the star having marked the northern vernal equinox together with its binary partner Gamma Arietis

Gamma Arietis

Gamma Arietis is a triple star system, 204 light years distant, in the constellation Aries. It has the traditional name Mesarthim, of obscure origin, and has been called "the First Star in Aries" as having been at one time the nearest visible star to the equinoctial point...

 several thousand years ago.

In Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, , meaning Bond

Bond (Chinese constellation)

Leu sieu meaning "the Train of a garment", was one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions of the traditional Chinese astronomy. It was one of the White Tiger of the West （西方白虎）.- The asterisms in the Region of Leu （婁宿天區）:...

 (asterism), refers to an asterism consisting of β Arietis, γ Arietis

Gamma Arietis

Gamma Arietis is a triple star system, 204 light years distant, in the constellation Aries. It has the traditional name Mesarthim, of obscure origin, and has been called "the First Star in Aries" as having been at one time the nearest visible star to the equinoctial point...

 and α Arietis. Consequently, β Arietis itself is known as

It has an observed visual magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 of +2.66. Its MK spectral type

Stellar classification

In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...

 is A5V (white main sequence

Main sequence

The main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell...

 star). It is 59.6 light years from Earth. This star is a spectroscopic binary. The companion orbits every 107 days with an unusually large eccentricity of 0.88. Based on the estimated mass of the companion, it is probably a G-class star.

External links

• Beta Arietis by Professor Jim Kaler.
• ARICNS entry
• The Constellations and Named Stars