Download Spica

Spica, or Alpha Virginis, is the brightest star in
the constellation Virgo
 It is 10 degrees South of the celestial equator.
 Spica, which is Latin, means “ear of wheat”


Spica is the 16th brightest
star in the night sky.
http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighlights/spicahighlights.html



Virgo is a constellation portraying the fertility
goddess
Spica got it’s name, “ear of wheat”, because
Virgo is holding a shear of wheat
Spica is the brightest star of Virgo



Spica’s temperature is 22,400 Kelvin, or 41,743.4
Fahrenheit
Spica has an apparent magnitude of 0.98, 25.76 more than
the Sun.
However, it has an absolute magnitude of -3.55, which is
8.38 less than the Sun.
Spica



The orbit of Spica and it’s companion are traveling about
56 miles per second
It takes about 4 days to travel around it’s barycenter, or
the center of mass in which two or more bodies travel
around
Spica’s companion star appears about half the size of
Spica, and is roughly 11 million miles away from it.
http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighlights/spicahighlights.html
Spica is considered a dwarf star, although it is
still 10 times more massive than the sun.
 It is classified as a B1 Blue Dwarf
 The optimum visibility period is April

Spica is about 262 light years away
 It’s scientific position is:

-RA: 13h 25m 12s, dec: -11° 09’ 41’

It is also one of several stars that the
moon can eclipse.






http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/spica.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630110/Virgo
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/spica.html
http://www.astronomynotes.com/starprop/s4.htm
http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighli
ghts/spicahighlights.html
http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/stars/spica.html