Hadar, a blue bright giant star in Centaurus
Hadar is a blue bright giant star in the constellation Centaurus. At 390 light years away, it is the 11st brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 0.61.
Hadar (HIP 68702)
Hadar is a blue bright giant star in the constellation Centaurus. At 390 light years away, it is the 11st brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 0.61. Hadar is a multiple-star system. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 23.8 km/s relative to the Sun and is part of the Lower Centaurus Crux moving group. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 21,400 and 23,900 light years from the center of the Galaxy.
Sky position: RA 14h 3.8m, Dec -60° 22.2'
Common designations: Hadar, Beta Centauri, HIP 68702, HD 122451, HR 5267
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Brightest stars in Centaurus:
(list all)
1
| -0.01
2
| 0.61
) Hadar
| Rank | Mag. | Star |
| 3 | 1.35 | Alpha Centauri B |
| 4 | 2.06 | Menkent |
| 5 | 2.20 | Gamma Centauri |
| 6 | 2.29 | Epsilon Centauri |
| 7 | 2.33 | Eta Centauri |
| 8 | 2.55 | Zeta Centauri |
| 9 | 2.58 | Delta Centauri |
| 10 | 2.75 | Iota Centauri |
| 11 | 3.11 | Lambda Centauri |
| 12 | 3.13 | Kappa Centauri |
| 13 | 3.41 | Nu Centauri |
| 14 | 3.47 | Mu Centauri |
| 15 | 3.83 | Phi Centauri |
| 16 | 3.85 | Tau Centauri |
| 17 | 3.87 | Upsilon-1 Centauri |
Galactic Orbit of Hadar
(compared to the Sun)
E
ccentricity: 5.6% vs. 16.0%Angle φ : 160.5°vs. 26.0°
Semi-major axis : 6,954 pc vs. 8,686 pc
Semi-minor axis: 6,943 pc vs. 8,574 pc
Focus-to-center
: 392 pcvs. 1,388 pcSemilatus rectum : 6,931 pc vs. 8,464 pc
Perigalacticon: 6,561 pc vs. 7,297 pc
Apogalacticon
: 7,346 pcvs. 10,074 pcSome Tabulated XHIP Data for Hadar
(see also: SIMBAD)
Astrometry
2007A&A...474..653V
| Position | Proper Motion | |
| Right Ascension: | 210.95601920° ±0.35 mas | -33.27 ±0.50 mas/yr. |
| Declination: | -60.37297887° ±0.34 mas | -23.16 ±0.41 mas/yr. |
| Galactic Longitude: | 311.76704914° | -38.38 mas/yr. |
| Galactic Latitude: | 1.25113883° | -13.06 mas/yr. |
Parallax: 8.32 ± 0.50 mas
Spectrography
Spectral Type: B1II-III 1990PASP..102..379W.
Radial Velocity: 5.90 ±3.80 km/s [A rating] 2006AstL...32..759G.
Iron Abundance [Fe/H]:
n/a
Photometry
band
magnitude
Abs. Mag.
U
B
0.38
-5.01
V
0.61
-4.78
R
I
0.86
-4.53
J
1.17
-4.22
H
1.21
-4.18
K
1.28
-4.11
B-V: -0.23 V-I: -0.25
Derivations
Heliocentric distance: 119.76 pc (fitted to cluster)
Galactocentric distance: 7,321 pc
Transverse velocity: 23.0 km/s
3D heliocentric position and motion:
|
toward: |
Galactic center | Galactic rotation | North Galactic Pole |
| Position ( X, Y, Z) | 79.8 pc | -89.3 pc | 2.6 pc |
| Velocity (U, V, W) | -12.2 km/s | -19.0 km/s | -7.3 km/s |