SV Centauri (SV Cen / HD 102552 / CD-59 3950) is a variable star in the constellation Centaurus. Its distance to the Solar System is not well known, being estimated at approximately 12,700 light years. SV Centauri constitutes a close binary and while some sources consider it a semi-detached binary, others consider it a contact binary. The joint spectral type is B2, the components of the system being a hot star of the main sequence of type B1 and a blue giant of type B6.5II-III. The ratio between the masses of both components, which is equal to 0.84, the respective effective temperatures being 28,000 and 17,000 K; other sources indicate notably lower temperatures, 11,330 and 7,800 K, in agreement with the spectral type considered, B8. The orbital period of the system is 1.65898 days (39.82 hours), SV Centauri being classified as an eclipsing binary of the W Ursae Majoris type.
Data
- Constellation : Centaurus
- Right ascension α : 11h 47min 56.9s
- Declination δ : -60º 33 ’55’ ‘
- Distance : 12,700 light years (approx)
- Visual magnitude : +8.71 (variable)
- Brightness : 220 + 74 soles?
- Temperature : 28,000 + 17,000 K
- Spectral type : B1V + B6.5II-III
- Radial speed : +33.4 km / s
Historical facts
The variability of the star SV Centauri, 114360. It was discovered in 1906 by Miss Henrietta S. Leavitt , in the course of an examination of plates made at an astronomical station in Arequipa. The discovery was published in Harvard Circular 122, under the designation HV 1289. In Astronomische Nuchrichten, number 4152, the star received the provisional designation, 177: 1906, in accordance with the custom of that newspaper. The variable star commission of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in its list published in Astronomische Nuchrichten, number 4212, gave it the definitive name SV Centauri. The two groups of observations do not indicate sensible eigenmovement, a detailed study of the Arequipa plate, by Miss Leavitt, is published in the Annals of Harvard College Observatory, volume LX, number 5. In this study she deduces that the variation of the light is continuous and of the β Lyrae type, and also that the period was not constant during the interval of the observations.