*** Welcome to piglix ***

S Monocerotis

S Monocerotis
Monoceros constellation map.svg
S Monocereotis lies in NGC 2264 at the very northern edge of Monoceros.
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation Monoceros
A
Right ascension 06h 40m 58.656s
Declination +09° 53′ 44.71″
Apparent magnitude (V) 4.66(4.62 - 4.68) + 5.90
B
Right ascension 06h 40m 58.566s
Declination +09° 53′ 42.20″
Apparent magnitude (V) 7.830
Characteristics
Spectral type O7V((f))zvar + O9.5Vn + B7V
U−B color index −1.034
B−V color index −0.261
Variable type Ia
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv) 22.00 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: −2.61 mas/yr
Dec.: −1.61 mas/yr
Parallax (π) 3.55 ± 0.50mas
Distance 720pc
Absolute magnitude (MV) −5.21
Orbit
Primary Aa
Companion Ab
Period (P) 74.00 ± 0.30 yr
Semi-major axis (a) 0.0885 ±0.0028"
Eccentricity (e) 0.76 ± 0.017
Inclination (i) 62.4 ± 0.4°
Details
Aa
Mass 29.1 M
Radius 9.9 R
Luminosity 214,000 L
Surface gravity (log g) 4.5 cgs
Temperature 38,500 K
Rotational velocity (v sin i) 120 km/s
Ab
Mass 21.3 M
Age 3.1 years
Other designations
15 Monocerotis, HD 47839, HIP 31978, HR 2456, SAO 114258, BD+10°1220
Database references
SIMBAD data
ARICNS data

S Monocerotis, also known as 15 Monocerotis, is a massive multiple and variable star system located in the constellation Monoceros. It is the brightest star in the Christmas Tree open cluster in the area catalogued as NGC 2264.

S Monocerotis is found within an open cluster and the Washington Double Star Catalog lists many companion stars. The closest and brightest is S Mon B, magnitude 7.8 and 3 arc seconds away. It is classified as B7 main sequence star with a mass of 5.12 M. The cluster contains another dozen or so 9th and 10th magnitude stars and many fainter stars.

S Monocerotis A is a spectroscopic binary system with an orbital period of 74 years. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as the MK standard for O7 by which other stars are classified. It is also an irregular variable star with a range of less than a tenth of a magnitude. The orbital parameters can be used to derive the masses of the two stars, giving 29 M and 21 M.

The distance to S Monocerotis and NGC 2264 has been derived in various ways, including dynamical parallax and icochrone fitting. These consistently give estimates of 700 - 900 parsecs, although this is double the likely distance derived from the Hipparcos parallax measurements.


...
Wikipedia

...