ART

The Albireo /ælˈbɪrioʊ/[20] system is a double star designated Beta Cygni (β Cygni, abbreviated Beta Cyg, β Cyg). The International Astronomical Union uses the name "Albireo" specifically for the brightest star in the system.[21] Although designated 'beta', it is fainter than Gamma Cygni, Delta Cygni, and Epsilon Cygni and is the fifth-brightest point of light in the constellation of Cygnus. Appearing to the naked eye to be a single star of magnitude 3, viewing through even a low-magnification telescope resolves it into its two components. The brighter yellow star (actually itself a very close binary system) makes a striking colour contrast with its fainter blue companion.[22]

Nomenclature
Albireo is the star in the head of the constellation of Cygnus (bottom).

β Cygni (Latinised to Beta Cygni) is the system's Bayer designation. The brighter of the two components is designated β¹ Cygni or Beta Cygni A and the fainter β² Cygni or Beta Cygni B.

The system's traditional name Albireo is a result of misunderstanding and mistranslation. It is thought that it originated in the Greek name ornis for the constellation of Cygnus, which became urnis in Arabic.[23] When translated into Latin, this name was thought to refer to the Greek name Erysimon for the plant called Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale, which in Latin is ireo), and so was described in Latin in the Arabo-Latin Almagest of 1515 as "Eurisim: et est volans; et jam vocatur gallina. et dicitur eurisim quasi redolens ut lilium ab ireo" ("Eurisim: and it is the flyer, and now it is called the hen, and it is called Eurisim, as if redolent like the lily from the 'ireo'"), via a confusion between ireo and the scented flower Iris florentina. This was variously miscopied, until "ab ireo" was treated as a miscopy of an Arabic term and changed into al-bireo.[24][25]

In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[26] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016[27] included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Albireo for β¹ Cygni. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.[21]

Medieval Arabic-speaking astronomers called Beta Cygni minqār al-dajājah (English: the hen's beak).[28] The term minqār al-dajājah (منقار الدجاجة) or Menchir al Dedjadjet appeared in the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, which was translated into Latin as Rostrum Gallinae, meaning the hen's beak.[29]

Since Cygnus is the swan, and Beta Cygni is located at the head of the swan, it is sometimes called the "beak star".[30] With Deneb, Gamma Cygni (Sadr), Delta Cygni, and Epsilon Cygni (Gienah), it forms the asterism called the Northern Cross.[31]
Properties
Albireo A and B

Beta Cygni is about 415 light-years (127 pc) away from the Sun. When viewed with the naked eye, Albireo appears to be a single star. However, in a telescope it resolves into a double star consisting of β Cygni A (amber, apparent magnitude 3.1), and β Cygni B (blue-green, apparent magnitude 5.1).[32] Separated by 35 seconds of arc,[16] the two components provide one of the best contrasting double stars in the sky due to their different colors.

It is not known whether the two components β Cygni A and B are orbiting around each other in a physical binary system, or if they are merely an optical double. If they are a physical binary, their orbital period is probably at least 100,000 years.[32] Some experts, however, support the optical double argument, based on observations that suggest different proper motions for the components, which implies that they are unrelated.[33] The primary and secondary also have different measured distances from the Hipparcos mission – 434 ± 20 light-years (133 ± 6 pc) for the primary and 401 ± 13 light-years (123 ± 4 pc) for the secondary.[9] More recently the Gaia mission has measured distances of about 330–390 light years (100–120 parsecs) for both components, but noise in the astrometric measurements for the stars means that data from Gaia's second data release is not yet sufficient to determine whether the stars are physically associated.[34]

There are a further 10 faint companions listed in the Washington Double Star catalogue, all fainter than magnitude 10. Only one is closer to the primary than Albireo B, with the others up to 142" away.[11]
Albireo A

The spectrum of Beta Cygni A was found to be composite when it was observed as part of the Henry Draper Memorial project in the late 19th century, leading to the supposition that it was itself double.[35] This was supported by observations from 1898 to 1918 which showed that it had a varying radial velocity.[36] In 1923, the two components were identified in the Henry Draper Catalogue as HD 183912 and HD 183913.[37][38]

In 1978, speckle interferometry observations using the 1.93m telescope at the Haute-Provence Observatory resolved a companion at 0.125". This observation was published in 1980,[39] and the companion is referred to as component Ab in the Washington Double Star Catalog.[11]

In 1976 speckle interferometry was used to resolve a companion using the 2.1-meter telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. It was measured at a separation of 0.44", and it is noted that the observation was inconsistent with the Haute-Provence observations and hence not of the same star.[18][40] Although these observations pre-dated those at Haute-Provence, they were not published until 1982 and this component is designated Ac in the Washington Double Star Catalog.[11] It is designated as component C in the Catalog of Components of Double and Multiple Stars,[41] not to be confused with component C in the Washington Double Star Catalog which is a faint optical companion.[11] An orbit for the pair has since been computed using interferometric measurements, but as only approximately a quarter of the orbit has been observed, the orbital parameters must be regarded as preliminary. The period of this orbit is 214 years.[18]

The status of the two possible companions is still not clarified.[42] One set of observations reports barely resolving two components, but there has not been confirmation of this.[43] Observations of Albireo assuming the spectrum is a composite of two stars derive a late B spectral type for the companion,[44] for example B8.[6] Adaptive optics measurements of the companion are best modelled by a B0V spectrum for the companion with an apparent magnitude of 5.85.[2] Different assumptions about the spectral type of the companion lead to wildly different physical properties, for example an effective temperature of either 12,000 K or 30,000 K.[6][2]

The diameter of the primary K-type giant star has been measured using interferometry. A uniform disk of approximately 4.5 mas was measured at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, and a limb-darkened diameter of 4.834 mas was calculated, equivalent to a radius of 69 R☉ at a distance of 133 pc.[45]
Albireo B

β Cygni B is a fast-rotating Be star, with an equatorial rotational velocity of at least 250 kilometers per second.[22] Its surface temperature has been spectroscopically estimated to be about 13,200 K.[14]

β Cygni B has been reported to be a very close double,[42] but the observations appear to have been incorrect.[11]
Namesakes

Albireo (AK-90) was a United States Navy Crater-class cargo ship named after the star.
Notes

Applying the Stefan-Boltzmann Law with a nominal solar effective temperature of 5,772 K:

\( {\displaystyle {\sqrt {(5772/4270)^{4}*1200}}=63.298\ R\odot } \)

Applying the Stefan-Boltzmann Law with a nominal solar effective temperature of 5,772 K:

\( {\displaystyle {\sqrt {(5772/12000)^{4}*950}}=7.131\ R\odot }\)

References

Høg, E; Fabricius, C; Makarov, V. V; Urban, S; Corbin, T; Wycoff, G; Bastian, U; Schwekendiek, P; Wicenec, A (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H.
Ten Brummelaar, Theo; Mason, Brian D; McAlister, Harold A; Roberts, Lewis C; Turner, Nils H; Hartkopf, William I; Bagnuolo, William G (2000). "Binary Star Differential Photometry Using the Adaptive Optics System at Mount Wilson Observatory". The Astronomical Journal. 119 (5): 2403. Bibcode:2000AJ....119.2403T. doi:10.1086/301338.. See tables 4, 5, 6, and 8. Luminosity from Lbol=102(4.75−Mbol)/5.
Fabricius, C; Høg, E; Makarov, V. V; Mason, B. D; Wycoff, G. L; Urban, S. E (2002). "The Tycho double star catalogue". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 384: 180–189. Bibcode:2002A&A...384..180F. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20011822.
Gaia Collaboration; Brown, A. G. A; Vallenari, A; Prusti, T; De Bruijne, J. H. J; Mignard, F; Drimmel, R; Babusiaux, C; Bailer-Jones, C. A. L; Bastian, U; Biermann, M; Evans, D. W; Eyer, L; Jansen, F; Jordi, C; Katz, D; Klioner, S. A; Lammers, U; Lindegren, L; Luri, X; O'Mullane, W; Panem, C; Pourbaix, D; Randich, S; Sartoretti, P; Siddiqui, H. I; Soubiran, C; Valette, V; Van Leeuwen, F; et al. (2016). "Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 595: A2. arXiv:1609.04172. Bibcode:2016A&A...595A...2G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629512. S2CID 1828208.
Ducati, J. R (2002). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Photometry in Johnson's 11-color system". CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues. 2237. Bibcode:2002yCat.2237....0D.
Ginestet, N.; Carquillat, J. M. (2002). "Spectral Classification of the Hot Components of a Large Sample of Stars with Composite Spectra, and Implication for the Absolute Magnitudes of the Cool Supergiant Components". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 143 (2): 513. Bibcode:2002ApJS..143..513G. doi:10.1086/342942.
Levenhagen, R. S; Leister, N. V (2006). "Spectroscopic analysis of southern B and Be stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 371 (1): 252–262. arXiv:astro-ph/0606149. Bibcode:2006MNRAS.371..252L. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10655.x. S2CID 16492030.
Famaey, B; Jorissen, A; Luri, X; Mayor, M; Udry, S; Dejonghe, H; Turon, C (2005). "Local kinematics of K and M giants from CORAVEL/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 430: 165–186. arXiv:astro-ph/0409579. Bibcode:2005A&A...430..165F. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20041272. S2CID 17804304.
Van Leeuwen, F (2007). "Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 474 (2): 653–664. arXiv:0708.1752. Bibcode:2007A&A...474..653V. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078357. S2CID 18759600.
Kharchenko, N. V; Scholz, R.-D; Piskunov, A. E; Röser, S; Schilbach, E (2007). "Astrophysical supplements to the ASCC-2.5: Ia. Radial velocities of ˜55000 stars and mean radial velocities of 516 Galactic open clusters and associations". Astronomische Nachrichten. 328 (9): 889. arXiv:0705.0878. Bibcode:2007AN....328..889K. doi:10.1002/asna.200710776. S2CID 119323941.
Entry, WDS identifier 19307+2758, Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars Archived 2017-11-12 at the Wayback Machine, William I. Hartkopf & Brian D. Mason, U.S. Naval Observatory. Accessed on line July 9, 2008. (19307+2758) Archived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
Tokovinin, A. A. (1997). "MSC - a catalogue of physical multiple stars". Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series. 124: 75–84. Bibcode:1997A&AS..124...75T. doi:10.1051/aas:1997181.
Lèbre, A.; De Laverny, P.; Do Nascimento, J. D.; De Medeiros, J. R. (2006). "Lithium abundances and rotational behavior for bright giant stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 450 (3): 1173. Bibcode:2006A&A...450.1173L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20053485.
Table 1, Levenhagen, R. S. (2004). "Physical Parameters of Southern B- and Be-Type Stars". The Astronomical Journal. 127 (2): 1176–1180. Bibcode:2004AJ....127.1176L. doi:10.1086/381063.
Fracassini, Massimo; Gilardoni, Giorgio; Pasinetti, Laura E. (1973). "Apparent diameters of 172 B5V-A5V stars of the Catalogue of Geneva Observatory". Astrophysics and Space Science. 22 (1): 141–152. Bibcode:1973Ap&SS..22..141F. doi:10.1007/BF00642829. S2CID 120496963.
Entry, The Washington Double Star Catalog, identifier 19307+2758, discoverer identifier STFA 43. Accessed on line July 9, 2008. Archived 8 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
NAME ALBIREO -- Star in double system , database entry, SIMBAD. Accessed on line July 9, 2008.
Scardia, M.; Prieur, J.-L.; Pansecchi, L.; Argyle, R.W.; Sala, M.; Basso, S.; Ghigo, M.; Koechlin, L.; Aristidi, E. (2008). "Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: IV. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2005" (PDF). Astronomische Nachrichten. 329 (1): 54–68. Bibcode:2008AN....329...54S. doi:10.1002/asna.200710834.
HD 183914 -- Emission-line Star, database entry, SIMBAD. Accessed on line July 9, 2008.
Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub. ISBN 978-1-931559-44-7.
"IAU Catalog of Star Names". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
Jim Kaler. "Albireo". Retrieved 2018-01-07.
p. 24, The names of the stars and constellations compiled from the Latin, Greek and Arabic, W. H. Higgins, Leicester: Samuel Clarke, 1882.
p. 194, Allen.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Cygnus*.html
"IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)". Retrieved 22 May 2016.
"Bulletin of the IAU Working Group on Star Names, No. 1" (PDF). Retrieved 28 July 2016.
p. 196, Star-names and Their Meanings, Richard Hinckley Allen, New York, G. E. Stechert, 1899.
Knobel, E. B. (June 1895). "Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, on a catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Mohammad Al Achsasi Al Mouakket". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 55 (8): 429. Bibcode:1895MNRAS..55..429K. doi:10.1093/mnras/55.8.429.
p. 416, In Quest of the Universe, Theo Koupelis and Karl F. Kuhn, 5th ed., Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2007, ISBN 0-7637-4387-9.
Northern Cross Archived 2008-07-08 at the Wayback Machine, entry, The Internet Encyclopedia of Science, David Darling. Accessed on line July 24, 2008.
p. 46, The Monthly Sky Guide, Ian Ridpath, Wil Tirion, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-521-68435-8.
Bob King (September 21, 2016). "Will the Real Albireo Please Stand Up?". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
Bailer-Jones, C. A. L; Rybizki, J; Fouesneau, M; Mantelet, G; Andrae, R (2018). "Estimating distances from parallaxes IV: Distances to 1.33 billion stars in Gaia Data Release 2". The Astronomical Journal. 156 (2): 58. arXiv:1804.10121. Bibcode:2018AJ....156...58B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aacb21. S2CID 119289017.
Maury, Antonia C.; Pickering, Edward C. (1897). "Spectra of bright stars photographed with the 11-inch Draper Telescope as part of the Henry Draper Memorial". Annals of Harvard College Observatory. 28: 1. Bibcode:1897AnHar..28....1M.
Campbell, W. W. (1919). "The Variable Velocity of β Cygni". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 31 (179): 38. Bibcode:1919PASP...31...38C. doi:10.1086/122807.
"freestarcharts.com". Retrieved 2017-06-11.
Cannon, Annie Jump; Pickering, Edward Charles (1923). "The Henry Draper catalogue : 19h and 20h". Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. 98: 1. Bibcode:1923AnHar..98....1C.. See note re HD 183912,3,4 on this page.
Bonneau, D.; Foy, R. (1980). "Speckle interferometric observations of binary systems with the Haute-Provence 1.93 M telescope". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 86: 295. Bibcode:1980A&A....86..295B.
McAlister, H. A.; Hendry, E. M. (1982). "Speckle interferometric measurements of binary stars. VI". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 48: 273. Bibcode:1982ApJS...48..273M. doi:10.1086/190778.
Dommanget, J.; Nys, O. (1994). "Catalogue des composantes d'etoiles doubles et multiples (CCDM) premiere edition - Catalogue of the components of double and multiple stars (CCDM) first edition". Com. De l'Observ. Royal de Belgique. 115: 1. Bibcode:1994CoORB.115....1D.
Roberts, Lewis C.; Turner, Nils H.; Ten Brummelaar, Theo A. (2007). "Adaptive Optics Photometry and Astrometry of Binary Stars. II. A Multiplicity Survey of B Stars" (PDF). The Astronomical Journal. 133 (2): 545. Bibcode:2007AJ....133..545R. doi:10.1086/510335.
Prieur, J.-L.; Koechlin, L.; Ginestet, N.; Carquillat, J.-M.; Aristidi, E.; Scardia, M.; Arnold, L.; Avila, R.; Festou, M. C.; Morel, S.; Pérez, J.-P. (2002). "Speckle Observations of Composite Spectrum Stars with PISCO in 1993–1998". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 142 (1): 95–104. Bibcode:2002ApJS..142...95P. doi:10.1086/341094.
Skiff, B. A. (2014). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Spectral Classifications (Skiff, 2009–2016)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/Mk. Originally Published in: Lowell Observatory (October 2014). 1. Bibcode:2014yCat....1.2023S.

Mozurkewich, D.; Armstrong, J. T.; Hindsley, R. B.; Quirrenbach, A.; Hummel, C. A.; Hutter, D. J.; Johnston, K. J.; Hajian, A. R.; Elias Ii, Nicholas M.; Buscher, D. F.; Simon, R. S. (2003). "Angular Diameters of Stars from the Mark III Optical Interferometer". The Astronomical Journal. 126 (5): 2502. Bibcode:2003AJ....126.2502M. doi:10.1086/378596.

Further reading

Webb, T. W.; McAlister, H. A.; Worley, C. E.; Burnham, S. W.; Aitken, R. G. (1980). "Albireo as a Triple Star". Sky and Telescope. 59: 210. Bibcode:1980S&T....59..210W.

External links

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Albireo: A Bright and Beautiful Double (30 August 2005)
A picture of Albireo by Stefan Seip
Albireo at Pete Roberts' Fuzzy Blobs site
About Cygnus, including more information about the origin of the name Albireo.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Albireo.

vte

Constellation of Cygnus

List of stars in Cygnus

Stars
Bayer

α (Deneb) β (Albireo) γ (Sadr) δ (Fawaris) ε (Aljanah) ζ η θ ι1 ι2 κ λ μ ν ξ π1 (Azelfafage) π2 ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω1 ω2 P Q

Flamsteed

2 4 8 9 14 15 16 (c) 17 20 (d) 22 23 26 (e) 27 (b1) 28 (b2) 29 (b3) 30 31 32 33 35 39 41 47 52 55 56 57 59 (f1) 61 63 (f2) 68 (A) 71 (g) 72 74 75

Variable

R T W RW SS TT BC BI CH KY V404 V476 V1057 V1143 V1191 V1489 V1500 V1668 V1974 V2513

HR

7633 7767 7912 8193

HD

185269 185435 187123 188753 191806 197037

Gliese

777 806 1245

Kepler

5 6 11 15 16 17 18 22 23 27 28 29 31 32 33 34 35 36 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 47 51 56 61 66 67 68 69 70 78 80 84 86 89 107 182 186 223 371 411 419 432 451 452 560 1229 1520 1625

Other

AFGL 2591 BD+40° 4210 BD+43 3654 Cygnus OB2 #8A Cygnus OB2 #12 Cygnus X-1 Cygnus X-3 G 208-44 G 208-45 GSC 03949-00967 HAT-P-7 HAT-P-11 HAT-P-17 KELT-9 KIC 8462852 KIC 9832227 KIC 11026764 KOI-5 KOI-74 KOI-81 KOI-256 KPD 1930+2752 MWC 349 N6946-BH1 PH1 PSR J2032+4127 W75N(B)-VLA2 WASP-48 WISE J2000+3629 WR 133 WR 134 WR 135 WR 136 WR 137 WR 140 WR 142 WR 147 WR 148

Former

3

Star
clusters
Association

Cygnus OB2 Cygnus OB7 Cygnus OB9

Open

DR 6 IC 5146 Messier 29 Messier 39 NGC 6811 NGC 6819 NGC 6834 NGC 6866 NGC 6871 NGC 6910

Molecular
clouds

Cygnus X (including DR 21)

Nebulae
Dark

Barnard 146 Barnard 147 IC 5146 L1014

H II

NGC 6914 North America Nebula Pelican Nebula Sadr Region Sh2-101 Sh2-106

Planetary

Abell 78 Egg Nebula IRAS 19475+3119 Kronberger 61 M1-92 NGC 6826 NGC 6881 NGC 6884 NGC 7008 NGC 7026 NGC 7027 NGC 7048 Soap Bubble Nebula

WR

Crescent Nebula

SNR

Cygnus Loop (including Veil Nebula)

Galaxies
NGC

6801 6946 7013

Other

3C 438 Cygnus A

Astronomy Encyclopedia

Physics Encyclopedia

World

Index

Hellenica World - Scientific Library

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License