U Camelopardalis

U Camelopardalis (U Cam) is a semi- regular variable carbon star.

The star is surrounded by a gaseous envelope with an expansion velocity of 23 km / s. It has a dynamic age of about 700 years and was probably within a few decades by the modulation of the mass loss rate by a helium shell flash ( " thermal pulse ").

The distance from U Cam is estimated using the period -luminosity relation at around 400 parsecs; it lies in the constellation Camelopardalis ( giraffe). Estimates of the effective temperature range between approximately 2500 and 3000 Kelvin.

North of U Cam, at a distance of about 200 arc seconds, is the star BD 62 ° 594 measurements of the angular distance and position angle were published in 1884 by Robert S. Ball. Due to the difference of the radial velocity can now be excluded that the two star form a bonded system. The putative companion has an apparent visual magnitude of 9.6 on mag and belongs to the spectral type B8 V to.

Left

• Red Giant Blows a Bubble

• Individual star fifth size and darker
• Giraffe ( constellation )
• Variable star