What is the brightest star in the constellation Musca?
Musca
The pattern of the brightest stars resembles that of Ursa Minor, in that the stars form a pattern reminiscent of a bowl with a handle.[12] Lying south-southeast of Acrux in neighbouring Crux is Alpha Muscae.[16] It is the brightest star in the constellation with an apparent magnitude of 2.7. Lying around 310 light-years away, it is a blue-white star of spectral type B2IV-V that is around 4520 times as luminous and 8 times as massive as the Sun. The star is a Beta Cephei variable with about 4.7 times the Sun's diameter, and pulsates every 2.2hours, varying by 1% in brightness. A nearby star of magnitude13 may or may not be a companion star.[17] Marking the fly's tail is Gamma Muscae,[16] a blue-white star of spectral type B5V that varies between magnitudes 3.84 and 3.86 over a period of 2.7days. It is a variable of a different type, classed as a slowly pulsating B star, a type of variable.[18] It is around five times as massive as our Sun.[19]
Musca
Many of the constellation's brighter stars are members of the Scorpius–Centaurus Association, a loose group of hot blue-white stars that appears to share a common origin and motion across the Milky Way. These include Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Zeta2 and (probably) Eta Muscae, as well as HD 100546, a blue-white Herbig Ae/Be star that is surrounded by a complex debris disk containing a large planet or brown dwarf and possible protoplanet. Two further star systems have been found to have planets. The constellation also contains two cepheid variables visible to the naked eye. Theta Muscae is a triple star system, the brightest member of which is a Wolf–Rayet star.