Tianguan is the blue-white star at the tip of the Bull’s southern horn, the Celestial Gate of Chinese astronomy, near which the Crab supernova was recorded.
At a glance
| type | blue-white star (class B) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 445 light-years (136 pc) |
| its light left it | 445 years ago |
| luminosity | 4,190 × the Sun |
| radius | 7.48 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 17,000 K |
| constellation | Taurus (Bull) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Tianguan
Tianguan is a hot blue-white star, larger and much brighter than the Sun, spinning fast enough to throw off a disc of gas around its equator. That disc adds bright emission lines to its spectrum, and the star also has a close companion, known from the regular shifts of those lines.
Its name comes from Chinese astronomy, where it means the Celestial Gate or Pass. When a new star blazed up nearby in the age before telescopes, Chinese observers recorded it as a guest star close to Tianguan. The wreck of that explosion is the Crab Nebula, M1, which lies just beside it on the sky.
What you see in the piece
From Earth the Crab Nebula sits just beside Tianguan; in the piece the nebula lies much farther away, and the pairing breaks as soon as you leave the Sun.
Questions
What does Tianguan mean?
Tianguan is Chinese for the Celestial Gate or Pass; it marks the tip of the Bull’s southern horn.
Is Tianguan near the Crab Nebula?
Only on the sky. Tianguan is 445 light-years (136 pc) from the Sun, while the Crab Nebula lies much farther away.