Electra (star)

Electra, also cataloged as 17 Tauri, is a blue-white giant star approximately 440 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus. The star is one of the nine brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster (the most visible stars in this group are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology).

Distance and visibility

The star has an apparent brightness of 3.72, the third brightest of the stars in the group. Electra belongs to the spectral class B6III and is approximately 400 light years from the sun. Electra is one of the four Pleiades stars that is classed as a giant, one that is starting to expand as the internal hydrogen fuel in the core is exhausted.

Electra is occasionally occulted by other planets in our solar system. The last time this happened was on May 9, 1841, when it was occulted by Venus.

External links

• Kaler, Jim Electra. STARS. University of Illinois. Retrieved on 2008-07-15..