Saclateni is an orange giant in Auriga with a hot blue companion that slips behind it, the prototype of a whole class of eclipsing binaries.
At a glance
| type | orange giant (class K) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 786 light-years (241 pc) |
| its light left it | 786 years ago |
| luminosity | 2,980 × the Sun |
| radius | 94 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 4,400 K |
| constellation | Auriga (Charioteer) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Saclateni
Saclateni is a pair: a cool, swollen orange giant and a small, hot blue-white star orbiting it. When the blue star passes behind the giant, it is eclipsed; just before and after, its light shines through the giant’s thin outer atmosphere.
Those moments let astronomers probe the giant’s outer layers, with the blue star acting as a lamp shone through them. Systems built like this are named after Saclateni’s older designation, Zeta Aurigae. It is one of the Kids, the triangle of stars beside Capella.
What you see in the piece
Saclateni looks like a close companion of Capella from Earth; fly out and it falls far behind the Goat, a pale orange point left on its own.
Questions
What kind of star is Saclateni?
Saclateni is an orange giant (class K) with a hot companion that it periodically eclipses.