Chertan
Chertan
Theta Leonis
Introduction
Chertan is a star in the equatorial-northern constellation of Leo. With an apparent visual magnitude of +3.324[ it is visible to the naked eye and forms one of the brighter stars in the constellation. The distance from the Sun can be directly determined from parallax measurements, yielding a value of about 165 light-years (51 parsecs). This is a large star with 2.8 times the mass of the Sun and four times the Sun's radius. The spectrum matches a stellar classification of A2 V, making this a seemingly typical A-type main sequence star. However, the spectrum shows enhanced absorption lines of metals, marking this as a chemically peculiar Am star. The abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the star's metallicity, appears around 12% higher than in the Sun. It is radiating 118 times the luminosity of the Sun from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 9,480 K, literally giving it a white-hot glow. Chertan is much younger than the Sun, with an estimated age of around 550 million years. It has a moderately high rate of rotation, with a projected rotational velocity of 23 km s−1. However, interferometric observations suggest that it is a rapidly rotating star being viewed nearly pole-on. Measurements in the infrared band show an excess of emission from the star and its surroundings, suggesting the presence of a circumstellar disk of dust. The temperature of this emission indicates the disk has an orbital radius of 36 AU.
Observation
Constellation
Leo
Right ascension
11h 14m 14.40446s
Declination
+15° 25′ 46.4541″
Apparent magnitude
+3.33
Information
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