Facts about Alkaid
- 09
Alkaid's mass of approximately 6.1 solar masses makes it roughly 6 times heavier than our Sun, classifying it among the more massive naked-eye stars visible from Earth.
- 08
Alkaid's apparent magnitude of 1.86 makes it the 34th brightest star visible from Earth's night sky, despite being one of the closest massive B-type stars to our solar system.
- 07
Alkaid's binary companion star, discovered through spectroscopic analysis, orbits the primary star with a period of approximately 32.6 days, making this system a spectroscopic binary.
- 06
Located in the Big Dipper asterism, Alkaid marks the southeastern corner of this famous star pattern and serves as one of the three bright vertices forming the constellation Ursa Major's main body.
- 05
Alkaid's spectral classification as B3V indicates it will eventually become a white dwarf within approximately 1 billion years, following its main-sequence lifetime.
- 04
Alkaid's surface temperature reaches approximately 9,400 Kelvin, making it a blue-white B-type star roughly 4,000 Kelvin hotter than our yellow Sun.
- 03
Alkaid's rapid rotation spins at approximately 90 kilometers per second, causing the star to bulge visibly at its equator unlike our slowly rotating Sun.
- 02
About 210 light-years from Earth, Alkaid is one of the brightest naked-eye stars despite being nearly 830 times more luminous than our Sun.
- 01
The third brightest star in Ursa Major, Alkaid, burns out its hydrogen fuel approximately 1 billion years faster than our Sun due to its 6.1 solar masses.