36 Ophiuchi A is an orange dwarf in a nearby triple system: a close pair of near-identical orange stars, with a third orbiting much farther out.
At a glance
| type | orange star (class K) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 19.4 light-years (5.96 pc) |
| its light left it | 19.4 years ago |
| luminosity | 0.27 × the Sun |
| radius | 0.69 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 4,900 K |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About 36 Ophiuchi A
36 Ophiuchi A, also named Guniibuu, is a main-sequence star of class K, smaller and cooler than the Sun. It is paired with a very similar orange dwarf, 36 Ophiuchi B, and the two orbit each other closely enough that a telescope shows them as a tight double.
A third star, 36 Ophiuchi C, shares their motion through space at a much greater distance. Systems like this, a close pair with a distant partner, are common, and they let astronomers compare stars that formed together from the same cloud and so share an age and composition.
What you see in the piece
From Earth the system appears in the piece as one faint point in Ophiuchus. Fly to it and the close pair and the distant third separate into orange points.
Questions
How many stars are in 36 Ophiuchi?
Three: the close pair 36 Ophiuchi A and B, both orange dwarfs, and a third star, C, much farther out.