Mothallah is the yellow-white star at the tip of Triangulum, a small northern constellation whose Arabic name for this star simply means the triangle.
At a glance
| type | yellow-white star (class F) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 63.3 light-years (19.4 pc) |
| its light left it | 63.3 years ago |
| luminosity | 14.1 × the Sun |
| radius | 2.95 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 6,510 K |
| constellation | Triangulum (Triangle) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Mothallah
Mothallah is a class F star, somewhat hotter and larger than the Sun, beginning to evolve away from the main sequence. It is a spectroscopic binary: a companion too close to be seen reveals itself through the regular back-and-forth shift of the star’s spectral lines.
Its name comes from the Arabic for the triangle, the shape the constellation has been drawn as since antiquity: a narrow figure of three stars between Andromeda and Aries. Mothallah marks the sharp apex. Not far from it in the sky lies the Triangulum Galaxy, a faint spiral that is one of the most distant things the naked eye can see under a very dark sky.
What you see in the piece
In the piece Mothallah is a near neighbour and the Triangulum Galaxy lies far beyond the Milky Way. Close in the sky from Earth, the two have nothing to do with each other once you move.
Questions
What does Mothallah mean?
Mothallah comes from the Arabic for the triangle, the shape of the constellation Triangulum.
How far away is Mothallah?
Mothallah is 63.3 light-years (19.4 pc) from the Sun.