The Pistol Star
Star-Struck Project BY SAAKETH JASTI
ABOUT THE STAR
The following info is about : The Pistol Star
Cool Facts
- It's the brightest known star in the Milky Way Galaxy
- It's near the hot and violent center of the Milky Way galaxy
- It throws of so much mass that it created the pistol nebula
Star History
This star was found in 1997 by Don Figer
Qualities
Color - Blue-White
Temperature - 11,800 Kelvins
Luminosity 4,000,000
It is four million times as luminous as our sun
Magnitude and Size
Mass - The pistol star is about 200-250 times the mass of the sun.
volume - It has a mass about 100-150 times of that of our sun.
Absolute magnitude - (-14.2)
Apparent magnitude - (4)
Distance and Spectral Class
The pistol star is 25,000 light years away from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles. 25,000 x 6 = 150,000 trillion or 150 quadrillion miles. Now that's why they made scientific notation. The star is in a spectral class B. As B stars are so powerful, they don't stray far from the place they were formed.
Citations
- http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/pistol.htm
- http://www.tldm.org/news/PistolStarMesssages.htm
- http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/sagittarius-constellation/
- http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~tanner/gcdyn.html
- http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=377
- http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2004/01/astronomers-star-may-be-biggest-brightest-yet-observed.html