Gienah is the brightest star of Corvus, the Crow, a hot blue-white star wider than the Sun and far more luminous.
At a glance
| type | blue-white star (class B) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 154 light-years (47.1 pc) |
| its light left it | 154 years ago |
| luminosity | 331 × the Sun |
| radius | 4.35 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 11,800 K |
| constellation | Corvus (Crow) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Gienah
Gienah is a blue-white star of class B, hotter and larger than the Sun and far more luminous. Its name comes from the Arabic for the wing, the wing of the crow, and although it carries the Greek letter gamma it outshines every other star of the figure.
Corvus is a small, tidy quadrilateral of four stars riding on the back of Hydra, the Water Snake, not far from Spica in Virgo. Gienah, Kraz, Algorab and Minkar make the shape most people recognise as the Crow; Alchiba, the star lettered alpha, is fainter than all four.
What you see in the piece
From Earth the four corners of Corvus sit together as a neat kite. Fly out and Gienah pulls away from Algorab and Kraz, which lie at quite different distances, and the crow comes apart.
Questions
How far away is Gienah?
Gienah is 154 light-years (47.1 pc) from the Sun; the light you see tonight left it 154 years ago.