46 Leonis Minoris
Encyclopedia
46 Leonis Minoris is the brightest star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 in the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Leo Minor
Leo Minor
Leo Minor is a small and faint constellation. Its name means "the smaller lion", in contrast to Leo, the larger lion. Its brightest stars form a rough triangle, and it lies between the larger and more recognizable Ursa Major and Leo...

. It is sometimes known as "o
O
O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a...

 LMi" (not "ο
Omicron
Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70. It is rarely used in mathematics because it is indistinguishable from the Latin letter O and easily confused with the digit 0...

LMi"), from Bode's catalogue of 1801. It was presumably intended to be designated α, as Francis Baily
Francis Baily
Francis Baily was an English astronomer, most famous for his observations of 'Baily's beads' during an eclipse of the Sun.-Life:Baily was born at Newbury in Berkshire in 1774...

 decided to letter each star brighter than magnitude 4.5, but the designation was missing from his catalogue, even though the dimmer β was included.

It has the proper name Praecipua, the Latin "the Chief (Star of Leo Minor)". The name may originally have referred to 37 Leonis Minoris, and later mistransfered to this star.

It is known as 勢四, "the Fourth (Star) of the Eunuch", in traditional Chinese astronomy.

46 LMi has spectral class
Stellar classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...

 K0+III-IV and is of magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 3.83. Its distance from Earth is approximately 98 light years.
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