Facts about Regulus
- 11
Ecliptic positioning makes Regulus one of the few first-magnitude stars that can be occulted by the Moon, planets, and asteroids as seen from Earth.
- 10
Mass measurements place Regulus at approximately 3.8 times our Sun's mass, making it a hot blue-white A-type main sequence star destined to exhaust its hydrogen fuel within roughly 1 billion years.
- 09
Regulus B, the companion star in this binary system, is a white dwarf with a mass comparable to our Sun compressed into an Earth-sized sphere.
- 08
Regulus will eventually pass extremely close to Earth in approximately 236,000 years, bringing the star within 18 light-years of our solar system due to its proper motion through space.
- 07
Regulus emits roughly 346 times more luminosity than our Sun, making it one of the most intrinsically brilliant stars visible to the naked eye.
- 06
At magnitude 1.35, Regulus shines as the 21st brightest star visible from Earth and dominates the spring night sky in the Northern Hemisphere.
- 05
Approximately 21.8 million miles separate Regulus from its companion star at their closest approach, making their orbital dance one of astronomy's slowest celestial cycles.
- 04
Regulus forms a binary star system with a faint companion star approximately 2,400 astronomical units away, taking roughly 100,000 years to complete one orbit.
- 03
In ancient Mesopotamia, Regulus was known as Sharru, meaning king, and served as one of the four royal stars marking the cardinal directions around 3000 BCE.
- 02
Regulus rotates so rapidly that it completes one spin in approximately 16 hours, causing its equator to bulge outward and flatten its poles.
- 01
The brightest star in Leo, Regulus, is approximately 79 light-years from Earth and has a surface temperature of roughly 12,000 Kelvin.