An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A → binary star in the constellation → Scorpius. Its other designations include BD-22 4068, HD 143275, HR 5953, IRAS 15573-2228, SAO 184014. The → primary star is called → Dschubba. δ Scorpii is one of the brightest stars in the sky. Until 2000, its → visual magnitude was V = 2.32; since then, and due to its transition to a Be phase (→ Be star), it has been even brighter (V = 1.6 mag). It was resolved interferometrically into two components in the 1970s, and the observations indicated a very → eccentric orbit (e ~ 0.94) with a period of ~10.6 years. The → binary system is not → eclipsing, and the → secondary star is 1.78 ± 0.03 mag fainter than the primary one. The → spectral type of the primary is B0.5 V and that of the secondary B2V. The components are therefore of similar size and thus may produce strong interactions between themselves and affect the → circumstellar disk at, or near → periastron. δ Sco was first classified as a Be star when a small amount of Hα emission was observed in its spectrum. Since the reclassification of δ Sco as a Be star, two periastrons have passed, once in 2000, and again in 2011. Spectroscopic observations around the 2000 periastron revealed a large increase in the Hα emission compared to that found previously in 1993, with further noticeable month-to-month variations in its Hα → equivalent width and visual magnitude. It has been suggested that these small variations are due to the disk's inability to grow greater than the → Roche lobe of the primary, which caused a density increase on the side of the disk facing the secondary (See Miroshnichenko et al., 2013, AJ 766, 119 and references therein).

Delta Scorpii is the system's → Bayer designation.