Rho Cassiopeiae
Encyclopedia : R : RH : RHO : Rho Cassiopeiae
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|- ! style="background-color: #FFFFC0;" colspan="2" | Details |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Mass | M☉ |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Radius | R☉ |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Luminosity | L☉ |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Temperature | K |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Metallicity | |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Rotation | |- |style="vertical-align: baseline;" | Age | })<()or(}})=()and(}})<())}}} years
|- ! style="background-color: #FFFFC0;" colspan="2" | Other designations |- | colspan="2" |
|} Rho Cassiopeiae (ρ Cas / ρ Cassiopeiae) is a yellow hypergiant in the Cassiopeia constellation. It is about 8–10,000 light years away, yet can still be seen by the naked eye (in the Northern Hemisphere only), as it is 580,000 times more luminous than the Sun. The surface diameter is 738 times larger than our sun's. On average, it has an absolute magnitude of −9.6, making it one of the most luminous stars known.
Rho Cassiopeiae is somewhat unstable in its luminosity. Its normal magnitude is at about 4.5, but in 1946 it went down to 6th magnitude, before going back to normal. The same thing happened in 2000–2001, when it produced one of the largest outbursts known, ejecting roughly 3% of its mass, the equal of 10,000 Earths. It seems to have these eruptions once every ~50 years.
Astronomers think Rho Cas may go supernova in the not too distant future because it will have consumed most of the nuclear fuel in its core.
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