Home > Procyon
:This article is about the star. Procyon is also the mammalian genus to which Raccoons belong.Procyon ( α Canis Minoris), meaning "before dog", is a brilliant star that receives its name from the fact that it precedes the star Sirius as it travels across the Earth's sky.
These two "dog stars" are referred to in the most ancient literature and were venerated by the Babylonians and the Egyptians.
Procyon is a vertex of the Winter Triangle.
Astrologically, Procyon portends wealth, fame, and good fortune.
Procyon is one of the closest stars to Earth's solar systemA generic solar system (or planetary system consists of at least one star and various orbiting objects (such as asteroids, comets, moons, and planets). The term originated to describe the planetary system around Sol, the Latin name for our sun. The planet, being only 11.4 light yearA light year abbreviated ly is the distance light travels in one year: roughly 9. 46 × 1012 kilometres (9. 46 petametres, or about 5. 88 × 1012 miles). More specifically, a light year is defined as the distance that a photon would travel, in free space ans away.
Like Sirius, it is a binary starA binary star system consists of two stars both orbiting around their barycenter. The term "binary star" was apparently first coined by Sir William Herschel in 1802 to designate "a real double star the union of two stars that are formed together in one sy — the main star (Procyon A) having a faint white dwarfA white dwarf is a star with a color like most other stars, but with low absolute brightness. Such stars were discovered in the 19th century; the first ones found were white. The color of a star is a measure of the surface temperature: white stars are lik companion (Procyon B).
Procyon A is also known as
HD 61421,
HR 2943,
BD+05°1739,
GCTP 1805.00A and
LHS 233.
1 Procyon A
Procyon A is 7 times brighter than the Sun. It is considered a subgiant , meaning it has just finished fusing its hydrogen into helium and begun to expand. It is expected that the sun will also go through this process when it begins to die.
In late June of 2004, Canada's orbital MOST satellite telescope completed a 32–day survey of Procyon A. The continuous optical monitoring was intended to confirm oscillations in its brightness observed from Earth. During the entire two month period however, no fluctuation in intensity whatever was observed. These findings have caused astrophysicists to question the accepted tenets of helioseismology, and theories of star formation.
1.1 Characteristics
2 Procyon B
Procyon B is a faint white dwarf star, with an average separation from Procyon A of about 16 times the Earth's distance from the Sun or roughly the distance between Uranus and the Sun.
