T Cygni
Variable star in the constellation Cygnus
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T Cygni is a binary star[14] system in the northern constellation of Cygnus. It is a faint system but visible to the naked eye with a combined apparent visual magnitude of 4.93.[2] Based upon an annual Parallax shift of 7.8 mas, it is located about 414 light years away. It is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −24 km/s.
The primary, component A, is a variable star, most likely of the slow irregular type, which ranges in magnitude from 4.91 down to 4.96.[4] Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt discovered that its brightness varies, in 1864. It appeared with its variable star designation in Annie Jump Cannon's 1907 work "Second Catalogue of Variable Stars".[15] It is a giant star with a stellar classification of K3 III,[7] which indicates it has exhausted the hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence. The star has expanded to 35 times the radius of the Sun. It is radiating 374 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere[3] at an effective temperature of 4,423 K.[10]
The secondary companion, component B, is a magnitude 10.03 star located at an angular separation of 8.10″ along a position angle of 120°, as of 2012. In 1877 it was separated by 10.0″ with nearly the same position angle (121°).[6] Although no spectral class has been published, the secondary has been calculated to have a mass of 0.8 M☉,[10] an effective temperature of 4,866 K, a radius of 0.9 R☉, and a bolometric luminosity of 0.4 L☉.[5]
Multiple star catalogs list an 11th magnitude star, component C, at a separation of 17″.[16] It has a small parallax and is much further away than the binary pair.[17]