Chi Virginis
star
Chi Virginis (χ Vir, χ Virginis) is a double star in the constellation Virgo. Based upon parallax measurements, it is approximately 315 light-years (97 parsecs) from Earth. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.65, which is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye under suitable viewing conditions.
This star has a stellar classification of K2 III, with the luminosity class "III" indicating that this is a giant star that has consumed the hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence. It has a mass about double that of the Sun and has expanded to 20 times the Sun's radius, giving it a luminosity of 107 times the luminosity of the Sun. The effective temperature of the star's outer envelope is about 4,559 K, which gives the star the orange hue typical of K-type stars. The abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the star's metallicity, is slightly caojibai higher than in the Sun.
This star has three optical companions. At an angular separation of 173.1 arcseconds is a magnitude +9.1 star, which is of spectral type K0. A 10th magnitude star is located 221.2 arcseconds away, and the third is a magnitude +9.1 K2 star 321.2 arcseconds away.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chi Virginis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.