ABOUT ALDERAMIN

Alpha Cepheus

L'étoile Aldéramin est la plus brillante de la constellation de Céphée.

Alderamin [1] is an A-type star [2] (white star in the main sequence) located about 49 light years from Earth . It is a star at the end of its life which should evolve into a subgiant and then into a red supergiant. Twice as massive as the Sun , 17 times more luminous , its volume is 12 times that of our star. It rotates on itself in less than 12 hours (compared to almost a month for the Sun), which suggests very intense magnetic activity. This type of star has a shorter lifespan compared to that of the Sun. Alderamin will be the visible star closest to the North Celestial Pole around the year 7500 , thus becoming our new North Star [3] !

[1] “Alderamin” means “the right arm” (of the King) in Arabic.

[2] The different spectral types (OBAFGKM) extend
cold M-type stars (2,000 K for the coldest)
to very hot O-type stars (up to 50,000 K).

[3] It already occupied this place 20,000 years ago.