Anser is the brightest star of Vulpecula, a red giant whose name is the Latin for goose, the bird once held in the jaws of the little fox.
At a glance
| type | red giant (class M) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 297 light-years (91.2 pc) |
| its light left it | 297 years ago |
| luminosity | 356 × the Sun |
| radius | 43.5 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 3,800 K |
| constellation | Vulpecula (Fox) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Anser
It is a red giant of class M: a star that has exhausted the hydrogen in its core and puffed its outer layers out to a great size, so that its surface has cooled to an orange-red glow while its total light has grown far beyond the Sun’s.
Vulpecula was drawn by Johannes Hevelius as a fox carrying a goose, and the goose survives as this star’s name, formally adopted by the IAU in recent years. The constellation is faint and lies in the Milky Way between Cygnus and Aquila. It also contains the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, a dying star’s cast-off shell.
What you see in the piece
Anser is modest to the eye, a dim orange-red point in a rich stretch of Milky Way. In the piece it is drawn at its true brightness, so it is easy to lose among the field stars until you fly close.
Questions
What does the star name Anser mean?
Anser is Latin for “goose”. Hevelius drew Vulpecula as a fox with a goose, and the name of the goose passed to its brightest star.