Nu Cancri
Binary star system in the constellation Cancer
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Nu Cancri is a binary star system[7] in the zodiac constellation of Cancer. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinised from ν Cancri, and abbreviated Nu Cnc or ν Cnc. This star is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +5.46.[3] Based upon an annual parallax shift of 8.31 mas as seen from the Earth,[2] the star is located roughly 447 light-years (137 pc) away from the Sun. It is drifting closer with a line of sight velocity of −16 km/s.[6]
The binary nature of this system was announced in 1973. This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary system with an orbital period of 3.8 years and an eccentricity of 0.35.[7] The primary, component A, is a white-hued A-type star with a stellar classification of A0 III.[5] It is a magnetic Ap star with a field strength of 846×10−4 T, showing abundance peculiarities in strontium, chromium and mercury.[8] This has been studied as a mercury-manganese star that has reached the end of its main sequence lifetime, although it has an unusually low abundance of mercury for a star of this type.[11] The star has 2.8 times the mass of the Sun and is radiating 93 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 10,250 K.[8]