Mu Leonis

Mu Leonis (μ Leo, μ Leonis) is a star in the constellation Leo. It has the traditional names Rasalas (Ras Elased Borealis) and Alshemali, abbreviations of Ras al Asad al Shamaliyy, from the Arabic رأس الأسد الشمالي ra’s al-’asad aš-šamālī "the northern (star) of the lion's head".

Mu Leonis is of spectral class K2III and apparent magnitude +3.88. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 0.02628 arc seconds as measured by the Hipparcos satellite, this system is 121.7 light-years (37.31 parsecs) from Earth. Around 3.35 billion years old, Mu Leonis has cooled and swollen to 11 times the diameter of the Sun. Burning helium in its core, it will continue to expand and cool into a red giant in around 50 million years. It has around 1.5 times the Sun's mass. It was announced in 2014 to have a planetary companion around 2.4 times as massive as Jupiter with an orbit of 357 days.

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