6 Cassiopeia

[perrin6]

Just been looking at the double star 6 Cassiopeia (1.4" seperation) & found info at ; http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/6cas.html which says it is one of the most luminous stars in the galaxy.

At 8100 light years (estimated) the white supergiant is 25 times the mass of our sun, 170 times it's diameter and 195000 times the sun's luminosity.

It is thought to be about 6.4 million years old and as it is so massive it will evolve much more quickly than most stars, exploding as a supernova and leaving a super-dense spinning neutron star the size of a small town.

Food for thought:icon_scratch:.

(6 Cassiopeia is about 4 degrees NW of Beta Cassiopeia ('Caph') the right hand-most star of the 'W'.)

Alan