Hassaleh is an orange giant at a corner of the Auriga pentagon, a cool swollen star whose light now comes from a vast surface rather than heat.
At a glance
| type | orange giant (class K) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 493 light-years (151 pc) |
| its light left it | 493 years ago |
| luminosity | 2,650 × the Sun |
| radius | 81 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 4,600 K |
| constellation | Auriga (Charioteer) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Hassaleh
Hassaleh is an evolved star: its core hydrogen is gone, and it has swollen into a giant many times the size of the Sun, its surface cooled to orange. Spread over so large an area, that modest surface heat adds up to an output far beyond the Sun’s, which is why it stays visible from so far away.
It marks the southern corner of the five-sided figure of Auriga, the Charioteer, between Elnath, which Auriga shares with the Bull, and Capella’s side of the pentagon. Many of its neighbours in the figure are hotter, bluer stars, which makes its warmer colour easy to pick out with binoculars.
What you see in the piece
From Earth Hassaleh is one corner of a tidy pentagon; from space the pentagon comes apart, Capella and Menkalinan close by, Hassaleh well behind them.
Questions
What colour is Hassaleh?
Hassaleh is an orange giant (class K) with a surface temperature of 4,600 K, cooler than the Sun.