Spica is the brightest object in the constellation Virgo and one of the twenty brightest stars in the night sky, carrying the Bayer designation Alpha Virginis. Parallax measurements place it about 250 light-years from the Sun, and it is a spectroscopic binary and rotating ellipsoidal variable, meaning its two component stars orbit so closely together that each is pulled into an egg-like shape and can only be told apart by their separate spectra; the primary component is a blue giant and a variable star of the Beta Cephei type.
Facts
Classification
Constellation In the Other Atlases
In Constellation
Also in Divinity Atlas: the constellation this subject lies in.
Sources
1. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikidata: Spica
Spica (Wikipedia)
Spica, Wikipedia - lead section, catalogue classification
Spica is the brightest object in the constellation of Virgo and one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky.
Spica, Wikipedia - lead section, constellation
Spica is the brightest object in the constellation of Virgo and one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky.
In Group: Triple and Higher-Order Star Systems, Lead sentence
It is triple star system, containing an inner spectroscopic binary and rotating ellipsoidal variable; a system whose two stars are so close together they are egg-shaped rather than spherical, and can only be separated by their spectra.
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