Procyon A is the brightest star in Canis Minor, a yellow-white star near the Sun that is beginning to age, with a white dwarf companion like Sirius has.
At a glance
| type | yellow-white star (class F) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 11.5 light-years (3.51 pc) |
| its light left it | 11.5 years ago |
| luminosity | 6.93 × the Sun |
| radius | 2.05 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 6,530 K |
| constellation | Canis Minor (Lesser Dog) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Procyon A
Procyon is a yellow-white star, larger, hotter and much more luminous than the Sun. It is near the end of its hydrogen-burning life in the core and has started to swell, on its way to becoming a giant. Its closeness makes it one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and with Sirius and Betelgeuse it forms the Winter Triangle of the northern sky.
Its name is Greek for “before the dog”: from the Mediterranean it rises shortly before Sirius, the Dog Star. Like Sirius, it wobbles along its path across the sky, and Friedrich Bessel concluded that it too had an unseen companion. That companion, Procyon B, was eventually seen through a telescope and is a white dwarf, faint and very close to the glare of its primary.
What you see in the piece
Fly to it and you find a large, yellow-white disc, paler than the Sun. In HUMAN EYE it is one of the brightest points in the sky, just east of Orion.
Questions
How far away is Procyon?
Procyon A is 11.5 light-years (3.51 pc) from the Sun.
How bright is Procyon compared with the Sun?
It gives out 6.93 × the Sun’s light and has a radius of 2.05 × the Sun.