An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The brightest star in the constellation → Andromeda with an average → apparent visual magnitude of 2.05. It is a red (B - V = +1.57), → giant star of → spectral type M0 III. Beta And lies at a distance of 197 ± 7 → light-years (61 ± 2 → parsecs). It has a mass of 3-4 Msun (→ solar mass), a → luminosity of ~ 2,000 Lsun (→ solar luminosity), and a radius of 100 Rsun (→ solar radius). Its other designations include: Mirach, Merach, Mirac, Mizar, 43 Andromedae, BD+34°198, HD 6860, HIP 5447, HR 337, LTT 10420, and SAO 54471. Beta And happens to lie nearly along the → line of sight to the galaxy → NGC 404. This galaxy, known as → Mirach's Ghost, is visible seven arc-minutes away.

Beta, a Greek letter of alphabet used in the → Bayer designation; → Andromeda