Beta Herculis

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Binary star in the northern constellation of Hercules

title: "Beta Herculis" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hercules-(constellation)", "g-type-giants", "triple-stars", "binary-stars", "bayer-objects", "flamsteed-objects", "henry-draper-catalogue-objects", "hipparcos-objects", "stars-with-proper-names", "durchmusterung-objects", "bright-star-catalogue-objects", "horizontal-branch-stars", "lucidae"] description: "Binary star in the northern constellation of Hercules" topic_path: "science/astronomy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Herculis" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Binary star in the northern constellation of Hercules ::

| name = β Herculis | image= |image=Hercules constellation map.svg|alt=|float=center|width=240 |label=|position=right |mark=Red circle.svg|mark_width=10|mark_link=β Herculis |x=819|y=720 |caption=Location of β Herculis (circled) | epoch = J2000 | constell = Hercules | ra = | dec = | appmag_v = 2.81 | type = Red clump | class = G7 IIIa | u-b = +0.70 | b-v = +0.91 | r-i = +0.47 | variable = Suspected | radial_v = | prop_mo_ra = −99.15 | prop_mo_dec = −15.39 | parallax = 23.44 | p_error = 0.58 | parallax_footnote = | absmag_v = | reference = | period_unitless = years | axis_unitless= | periastron = JD | inclination = | node = | eccentricity = | periarg_primary = | k1 = | component1 = A | mass = | radius = | temperature = | metal_fe = | luminosity = | gravity = 2.5 | rotational_velocity = 3.0 | age_myr = | component2 = B | mass2 = 0.9 | names = Kornephoros, Korndeforos, Rutilicus, β Her, Beta Herculis, Beta Her, 27 Herculis, 27 Her, BD+21 2934, FK5 618, HD 148856, HIP 80816, HR 6148, SAO 84411, WDS 16302+2129A/Aa. | Simbad=bet+her

Beta Herculis (β Herculis, abbreviated Beta Her, β Her), formally named Kornephoros , is a binary star and the brightest star in the northern constellation of Hercules at a base apparent visual magnitude of 2.81. This is a suspected variable star with an apparent magnitude that may rise as high as 2.76. Based upon parallax measurements, it is located at a distance of 139 ly from the Sun.

Although Beta Herculis appears to the naked eye to be a single star, in July 1899 the American astronomer W. W. Campbell discovered from spectroscopic measurements that its radial velocity varies, and concluded that it has a companion.

Properties

At Palomar Observatory, Antoine Labeyrie and others used speckle interferometry with the Hale Telescope to resolve the system in 1977. The Hipparcos satellite observed the orbital motion of the primary relative to other stars, and an orbit was computed in 2005 using spectroscopic data together with these measurements. The period of the system is around 410 days. They have a high orbital eccentricity of 0.55 and the orbital plane is inclined 53.8° to the line of sight from the Earth.

The primary star has a stellar classification of G7 IIIa, indicating that it is a giant star that has exhausted the hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence. It is most likely fusing helium into carbon and oxygen in its core, qualifying it as a horizontal branch star. With a mass nearly three times the mass of the Sun, it was most likely a B-type main-sequence star similar to Beta Librae prior to core hydrogen exhaustion. It is comparable to the main component of Capella, albeit warmer and brighter. Being 420 million years old, it has expanded to 16 times the Sun's radius and is radiating 150 times its luminosity. The effective temperature of the star's outer envelope is about 5,100 K, which gives it the yellow hue of a G-type star. The secondary star has a mass only 90% that of the Sun.

With insufficient mass to explode as a supernova, Beta Herculis will most likely become a white dwarf similar to Sirius B, but less massive.

Nomenclature

β Herculis (Latinised to Beta Herculis) is the star's Bayer designation.

It bore the traditional names Kornephoros, a Greek word meaning "club bearer", and Rutilicus, a corruption of the Latin word titillicus, meaning "armpit". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN){{citation | url=https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ | title=IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) | publisher=International Astronomical Union | access-date=22 May 2016 | postscript=. | archive-date=10 June 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610172014/https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ | url-status=dead

It was a member of the indigenous Arabic asterism al-Nasaq al-Shāmī, "the Northern Line" of al-Nasaqān "the Two Lines",

In Chinese, 天市右垣 (Tiān Shì Yòu Yuán), meaning Right Wall of Heavenly Market Enclosure, refers to an asterism which represents eleven old states in China and which is marking the right borderline of the enclosure, consisting of Beta Herculis, Gamma Herculis, Kappa Herculis, Gamma Serpentis, Beta Serpentis, Delta Serpentis, Alpha Serpentis, Epsilon Serpentis, Delta Ophiuchi, Epsilon Ophiuchi and Zeta Ophiuchi. Consequently, the Chinese name for Beta Herculis itself is 天市右垣一 (Tiān Shì Zuǒ Yòu yī, ), represent Hézhōng (河中), possibly Hezhong Municipality or Hezhong Circuit (see : Wang Chongrong, formally the Prince of Langye 瑯琊王, was a warlord of the late Chinese Tang dynasty who controlled Hezhong Circuit, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi). Hézhōng (河中) was westernized into Ho Chung by R.H. Allen, which means "in the river".

Namesake

USS Rutilicus (AK-113) was a United States Navy Crater class cargo ship named after the star.

References

References

  1. "IAU Catalog of Star Names".
  2. along with [[Gamma Herculis]], [[Gamma Serpentis]] and [[Beta Serpentis]]. Though, according to a 1971 [[NASA]] catalog, ''al-Nasaq al-Sha'āmī'' or ''Nasak Shamiya'' was the title for three other stars: Beta Serpentis as ''Nasak Shamiya I'', Gamma Serpentis as ''Nasak Shamiya II'' and Gamma Herculis as ''Nasak Shamiya III''.[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720005197_1972005197.pdf Jack W. Rhoads - ''Technical Memorandum 33-507-A Reduced Star Catalog Containing 537 Named Stars'', Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; November 15, 1971]
  3. {{in lang. zh ''中國星座神話'', written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, {{ISBN. 978-986-7332-25-7.
  4. {{in lang. zh [http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/Research/StarName/c_research_chinengstars_h_l.htm 香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表] {{webarchive. link. (2011-01-29 , Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.)
  5. {{in lang. zh [http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/Research/StarName/e_research_chinengstarzone_b.htm#HeavenlyMarketEnclosure English-Chinese Glossary of Chinese Star Regions, Asterisms and Star Name] {{webarchive. link. (2010-08-10 , Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.)
  6. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Hercules*.html Star Names - R.H.Allen p. 244]
  7. van Leeuwen, F.. (November 2007). "Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction". Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  8. (January 2008). "Rotational and Radial Velocities for a Sample of 761 HIPPARCOS Giants and the Role of Binarity". The Astronomical Journal.
  9. Gray, David F.. (November 2016). "The Orbit, Rotation, and Granulation of the G7 Giant β Her". The Astrophysical Journal.
  10. (May 1983). "New UBVRI photometry for 900 supergiants". Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.
  11. (September 1990). "The Visual Orbit, the Stellar Diameter and the Magnitude Difference of the Spectroscopic Binary β Herculis". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society.
  12. (October 2005). "Astrometric orbits of SB^9 stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  13. "Beta Herculis".
  14. "Kornephoros". University of Illinois.
  15. (1900). "The variable velocity of β Herculis in the line of sight". Astrophysical Journal.
  16. (2019-09-01). "A Recipe for Finding Stellar Radii, Temperatures, Surface Gravities, Metallicities, and Masses Using Spectral Lines". The Astrophysical Journal.
  17. "NSV 7778".
  18. (1995-11-01). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Hoffleit+, 1991)". VizieR Online Data Catalog.
  19. (2001). "The 2001 US Naval Observatory Double Star CD-ROM. I. The Washington Double Star Catalog". The Astronomical Journal.
  20. (2006). "A Dictionary of Modern Star names: A Short Guide to 254 Star names and Their Derivations". Sky Publishing.
  21. (2017). "Fundamental parameters of 87 stars from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer". The Astronomical Journal.
  22. Allen, R. H.. (1963). "Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning". Dover Publications Inc.
  23. [[European Space Agency]]. (1997). "The HIPPARCOS and TYCHO catalogues. Astrometric and photometric star catalogues derived from the ESA HIPPARCOS Space Astrometry Mission". ESA Special Publication.
  24. (June 1, 1977). "The digital speckle interferometer: preliminary results on 59 stars and 3C 27". Astrophysical Journal Letters.
  25. (December 21, 2004). "The Colour of Stars". Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
  26. (March 2008). "Rotation and Macroturbulence in Metal-Poor Field Red Giant and Red Horizontal Branch Stars". The Astronomical Journal.

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hercules-(constellation)g-type-giantstriple-starsbinary-starsbayer-objectsflamsteed-objectshenry-draper-catalogue-objectshipparcos-objectsstars-with-proper-namesdurchmusterung-objectsbright-star-catalogue-objectshorizontal-branch-starslucidae