RS Canum Venaticorum
variable star in the constellation Canes Venatici
RS Canum Venaticorum is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It serves as the prototype to the class of RS Canum Venaticorum variables. The peak apparent visual magnitude of this system is below the level needed to observe it with the naked eye. It is located at a distance of approximately 443 light years from the Sun based on parallax, but is drifting closer with a net radial velocity of −14 km/s. Olin J. Eggen (1991) included this system as a member of the IC 2391 supercluster, but it was later excluded.
Variability
The variable nature of RS Canum Venaticorum was discovered by the Russian astronomer Lidiya Tseraskaya in 1914. It is a detached binary in a close, circular orbit with a period of 4.8 days. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 85.55° to the line of sight from the Earth, causing this to be viewed from Earth as an eclipsing binary. Some of the brightness variations are caused by large spots on the surface of the star. Similar variable stars are known as RS Canum Venaticorum variables.
The public source identifies “RS Canum Venaticorum” as variable star in the constellation Canes Venatici. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Canum, Venaticorum and variable.
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This entry incorporates text from “RS Canum Venaticorum” 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.