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Achernar
(redirected from Alpha Eri)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.02 sec.
Achernar (ā`kərnär'), brightest star in the constellation Eridanus Eridanus , large southern constellation stretching SW from Orion for about 60°. Because of its long, winding shape it was identified with a river by many ancient civilizations; e.g., the Egyptians called it the Nile and the Babylonians called it the Euphrates.
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; Bayer designation α Eridani; 1992 position R.A. 1h37.4m, Dec. −57°16'. A bluish-white white star with apparent magnitude magnitude, in astronomy, measure of the brightness of a star or other celestial object. The stars cataloged by Ptolemy (2d cent. A.D.), all visible with the unaided eye, were ranked on a brightness scale such that the brightest stars were of 1st magnitude and the
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 0.51, it is one of the 10 brightest stars in the entire sky. Its distance is about 120 light-years, and its luminosity about 600 times that of the sun. Achernar is of spectral class spectral class, in astronomy, a classification of the stars by their spectrum and luminosity. In 1885, E. C. Pickering began the first extensive attempt to classify the stars spectroscopically.
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 B5 V. Its name is from the Arabic meaning "end of the river [Eridanus]."


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