What can you say about the red giant star closest to the Earth?

The closest Red Giant, luminosity class III, is Beta Andromedae, also called Mirach. It is an M0 III star about 23 parsecs from the Sun. Its luminosity is abiut 75 times that of the Sun. It is of apparent magnitude +2.03 and has a faint +14m companion about 28 arcseconds from it and is a dwarf star about 800 times less luminous than our Sun. Mirach is suspected of a slight variability.

Unless you know someone that has visited there recently, that's about all I could dig up on this star on short notice.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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