Mimosa (star)

Mimosa is the second brightest object in the southern constellation of Crux after Acrux, and the 21st brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation β Crucis, which is Beta Crucis in Latin. Its name when shortened is Beta Cru or β Cru. Mimosa is part of the prominent asterism called the Southern Cross. It is a binary star or a possible triple star system. It is also one of the closest stars with a infrared bow shock.

Based on parallax measurements, Mimosa is 277 light years from Earth. In 1957, German astronomor Wulff-Dieter Heintz discovered that it is a spectroscopic binary with components that are too close together to resolve with a telescope. The pair orbit each other every five years with a guessed separation that changes from 5.4 to 12.0 AU. The age of the system is only 8 to 11 million years.

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Category:Stars