Alpha Cancri

Alpha Cancri (α Cnc, α Cancri) is a star system in the constellation Cancer. It has the traditional name Acubens (Açubens), from the Arabic الزوبنةal zubanāh, "the claws"

Properties

Acubens is a fourth-magnitude star with an apparent magnitude of 4.20, making it barely visible to the naked eye under good lighting conditions. Nevertheless, it is 23 times more luminous than the Sun. Its stellar classification is A5m. The Hipparcos mission estimated the distance of Acubens to be roughly 53 parsecs from Earth, or approximately 174 light years away.

Since it is near the ecliptic, it can be occulted by the Moon and very rarely by planets.

Star System

The primary component, α Cancri A, is a white A-type main sequence dwarf with an apparent magnitude of +4.26. Its companion, α Cancri B, is an eleventh magnitude star. In the year 1836, its position angle was observed at 325 degrees with a separation from the main star α Cancri A of 11.3 arcseconds.

From studying its light curve during occultation, it is thought that α Cancri A may itself be a close binary, consisting of two stars with similar brightness and a separation of 0.1 arcseconds.