Zeta Chamaeleontis
variable star in the constellation Chamaeleon
Zeta Chamaeleontis is a binary star system located in the constellation Chamaeleon. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from ζ Chamaeleontis, and abbreviated Zet Cha or ζ Cha. This is a 5th magnitude star, faintly visible to the naked eye under good observing conditions. Based on parallax measurements, it is located around 540 light-years distant.
South African Astronomer A.W.J. Cousins noted ζ Cha to vary between magnitudes 5.06 and 5.17 in 1960. It was classified as a Beta Cephei variable in the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997), with a period of 1.07 days, before being reclassified as a slowly pulsating B star in the 2011 version. It is now known to be an eclipsing binary star, with a period of 2.7 days, with continuous variation through the whole cycle due to the ellipsoidal shape of the component stars.
This is classified as a B5V main sequence, an absolute magnitude of −1.15 and a mass of 3.1 solar masses, although the properties are evaluated treating the system as a single star.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zeta Chamaeleontis” 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.