Epsilon Aurigae

(ô-rÿ -jee, -ree -) An eclipsing binary star about 600 parsecs distant in the constellation Auriga, with a period of 9892 days, the eclipse lasting about 610 days. It consists of an extremely luminous F2 Ia supergiant about 15 times the mass of the Sun with a very large companion of about the same mass. Once thought to be a very distended cool supergiant, the large occulting object is now believed to be a ring or shell of gases surrounding the true companion, a main-sequence B star. The gases arise from rapid mass transfer from the F star (see W Serpentis star).

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