Xi Cassiopeiae

A faint fifth magnitude star in the southern reaches of the constellation of Cassiopeia. Xi Cassiopeiae lies directly southward from the prominent 'W' shape of Cassiopeia's Chair, roughly halfway between that group of five stars and the Andromeda Galaxy to the south.

Xi Cassiopeiae is a blue dwarf star, somewhat larger and hotter than the Sun. It is highly luminous, generating some 2,000 times as much light as the Sun and about 16,000 times as much energy across the entire spectrum. For this reason it is faintly visible to the naked eye despite its great distance fron the Solar System of approximately 1,500 light years.

This is an eruptive variable star, meaning that its brightness varies unpredictably due to violent events such as flares emitted from the star. Examination of its spectrum shows that Xi Cassiopeiae is a binary system, with a companion star orbiting the primary blue dwarf over a period of 940 days.