Tau Herculis, a name Latinized from τ Herculis, is a variable star in the northern constellation of Hercules. It has a blue-white hue and is visible to the naked eye at night with an apparent visual magnitude that fluctuates around 3.91.[2] The star is located at a distance of approximately 307 light years from the Sun based on parallax,[1] but it is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −16 km/s.[2]
A light curve for Tau Herculis, plotted from TESS data[11]
The stellar classification of Tau Hercules is B5 IV,[5] and it serves as a standard spectrum in the modern Morgan–Keenan (MK) classification.[12] It is estimated to be just 26 million years old with a relatively low projected rotational velocity of 32 km/s.[6] Slowly rotating B-type stars are often chemically peculiar, so the mostly normal spectra of this star suggests we may be viewing it from near pole-on.[13] The abundance of most heavier elements in this star are about 85% of those in the Sun.[14] The star has four times the mass of the Sun[6] and around 3.8[8] times the Sun's radius. On average, it is radiating 574[2] times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 15,615 K.[7]
During the Hipparcos mission,[4] Tau Hercules was discovered to be a variable star of the slowly pulsating B-type. These are mid-B main sequence stars that vary with a period of about a day;[4] the brightness of Tau Hercules varies by 0.03 magnitude[3] over a period of 1.24970±0.00008 days. The radial velocity of the star varies at a different rate than the photometric period, with the object showing both radial and non-radial pulsation modes.[4][15]
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TauHerculis, a name Latinized from τ Herculis, is a variable star in the northern constellation of Hercules. It has a blue-white hue and is visible to...
pole nearer the stars in the constellation Hercules, pointing towards TauHerculis around 18,400 AD. The celestial pole will then return to the stars in...
naked-eye star closest to the north pole from 3942 BC, when it superseded TauHerculis as the pole star, until 1793 BC, when it was superseded by Kappa Draconis...
Iota Herculis (ι Herculis, ι Her) is a fourth-magnitude variable star system in the constellation Hercules, consisting of at least four stars all about...
The Tau Herculids (TAH #0061) are a meteor shower that when discovered in 1930 appeared to originate from the star TauHerculis. The parent comet of the...
spectrograms. XXV. The superficially normal B and A stars alpha Draconis, tauHerculis, gamma Lyrae, and HR 7926", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 371 (3): 1078–1083...
abundance analyses of B and A stars. V. The normal stars theta Leonis, tauHerculis, 14 Cygni and 5 Aquarii", Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series...
1960s failed to observe this. The first variable white dwarf found was HL Tau 76; in 1965 and 1966, Arlo U. Landolt observed it to vary with a period of...
Upsilon Herculis (υ Her) is a solitary star in the constellation Hercules. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.74. Based...
Pictoris moving group Castor moving group AB Doradus moving group Zeta Herculis moving group Alpha Persei moving cluster Cameleopardis OB1 association...
Zeta Herculis Binary star system 2.80 Pi Puppis Star Maximum brightness 2.81 2.68 Rho Puppis Star 2.81 Beta Draconis Binary star system 2.81 Tau Scorpii...
low-mass star and a strongly magnetic white dwarf. Known as a polar or AM Herculis variable, these produce polarized optical and infrared emissions and intense...
and a formal period of 146.5 days. AC Herculis is an example of an RVa type variable. The luminosity of RV Tau variables is typically a few thousand times...
The stars in this group include ν Ophiuchi, δ Herculis, λ Herculis, μ Herculis, ο Herculis, 112 Herculis, ζ Aquilae, θ1 Serpentis, η Serpentis, ξ Serpentis...
few variable stars were known to exist. R Sct is the brightest of the RV Tau-type stars and the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)...
border from Auriga into the constellation Lynx Also designated Psi Herculis (ψ Herculis, ψ Her) by Bayer, after Ptolemy – Bayer’s Uranometria and Bayer letters...
(Crux) method, it can be positively verified using an asterism: Sigma, Chi, Tau, and Upsilon Octantis are all stars of around magnitude 5.6, and form the...
of their period. Stars with periods between 1 and 4 days are of the BL Herculis subclass and 10–20 days belong to the W Virginis subclass. Stars with periods...
birds. Among the northern Polynesian people, Vega was known as whetu o te tau, the year star. For a period of history it marked the start of their new...
C.; Greaves, J. S.; Su, K. Y. L.; Fitzgerald, M. P. (2012-04-01). "99 Herculis: host to a circumbinary polar-ring debris disc". Monthly Notices of the...
the constellation Taurus (the Bull) is designated α Tauri (abbreviated α Tau, pronounced Alpha Tauri), which means "Alpha of the Bull". Bayer used Greek...
p. 89. In 1985, this star was given the variable-star designation V777 Herculis, which is also another name for this class of variable stars.; , p. 3525...
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