• Mimosa

  Mimosa is a star in Crux.

                                               
                                               
                       ###                     
                  #############                
               ###################             
              #####################            
             #######################           
             #######################           
            #########################          
             #######################           
             #######################           
              #####################            
               ###################             
                  #############                
                       ###                     
                                               
                                               

  Type            Blue-white giant
  Constellation   Crux
  Magnitude       1.2
  Spectral type   B0.5III
  Distance        353 light years
  Double star     components 371.6″ apart
  You need        naked eye

  Known as
  Bayer           β Cru
  Yale            HR 4853

  More information about Mimosa

  Mimosa is the bright star at the eastern arm of the Southern Cross, 353
  light years away, and its surface is around 27,000 degrees, roughly five
  times as hot as the Sun. That heat is why it looks distinctly
  blue-white. It pulses very slightly, several times a day, as the star
  swells and settles. Nobody knows why it is named after a flower.

  Bayer lettered the stars of each constellation in his Uranometria of
  1603, in order of brightness. He was working from Tycho's magnitudes by
  eye, and the order he recorded is often wrong.

  First published in 1930 by Yale astronomer Frank Schlesinger, and
  maintained since, the Yale Bright Star Catalogue lists every star down
  to magnitude 6.5. It contains 9,110 stars.

  where it is tonight:  skymap.sh/Mimosa