Delta Crucis

5600 L ☉

Decrux (also Dekrux ) is the proper name of the star δ Crucis (Delta Crucis ), caused by contraction of the Bayer designation. Decrux is a supergiant of spectral type B2 and has an apparent magnitude of 2.8 mag. He is of the four stars that make up the Southern Cross, the faintest. Its distance is about 345 light-years, its absolute brightness like -2.3.

Three of these four stars, Alpha, Beta and Delta Crucis, have a similar spectral type and a similar distance and all belong to a stellar association, even if they are too far apart to be gravitationally bound.

Decrux as beta Crucis a variable star Beta Cephei type and therefore has low brightness fluctuations with a period of 3.7 hours. He has as many B stars a high rotational speed, which at the equator at least 194 km / s, resulting in a calculated maximum rotation period of 1.3 days. With its strong stellar wind he loses per time interval more than a thousand times as much mass as the sun. With about 8.5 times the mass of the Sun it is at the upper end of the spectrum to still end up one day as a white dwarf.

In Brazil Decrux is also called Palida ( the Pale ) and represents the state of Minas Gerais.

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