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astronomy

HD 142990

HD 142990 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand HD 142990 rather than just read about it. In short: HD 142990, also known as HR 5942 and V913 Scorpii, is a star about 470 light years from the Earth, in the constellation Scorpius. It is a 5th magnitude star, so it will be faintly visible to the naked eye of an observer far from city lights.

HD 142990 — main illustration
HD 142990 — illustration

Key takeaways

  • HD 142990 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect HD 142990 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of HD 142990 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HD 142990, also known as HR 5942 and V913 Scorpii, is a star about 470 light years from the Earth, in the constellation Scorpius. It is a 5th magnitude star, so it will be faintly visible to the naked eye of an observer far from city lights. It is a variable star, whose brightness varies slightly from 5.40 to 5.47 during its 23.5 hour rotation period. It is a member of the Upper Scorpius Region of the Scorpius–Centaurus association. HD 142990 is a helium-weak star. In 1983, Ermanno Borra et al. detected the star's strong (~kilogauss) magnetic field from the Zeeman splitting of the Hβ spectral line. Later estimates put the field strength as several kilogauss. The variability of HD 142990 was discovered in 1977 by Holger Pedersen and Bjarne Thomsen, during a spectroscopic and photometric study of helium weak and helium strong stars. In 1978 the star was given the variable star designation V913 Scorpii. Far more extensive photometric data were provided by the Kepler K2 program, which sampled the light curve well, and allowed Dominic Bowman et al. to measure the star's 0.978832±0.000002 day rotation period. The rotation period of HD 142990 appears to be decreasing at a rate of about 0.6 seconds per year. This might mean the star is still contracting towards the zero-age main sequence, though other explanations involving magnetohydrodynamics have been proposed. In 1989, Jeffrey Linsky et al. reported the detection of 6 cm radio emission from HD 142990, which appeared to be variable on a time scale of 5 minutes. In 2018, Emil Lenc et al. found that the radio emission from the star is circularly polarized. In 2019, Barnali Das et al. reported that HD 142990 exhibits coherent electron cyclotron maser emission at 200 MHz, making it, at that time, only the fourth hot magnetic star known to emit by this mechanism .

References

Illustrations

HD 142990 illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HD 142990

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HD 142990 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to HD 142990 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about HD 142990 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of HD 142990

In research
HD 142990 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses HD 142990 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
HD 142990 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics B-type main-sequence stars, Bright Star Catalogue objects, Helium-weak stars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for HD 142990 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study HD 142990 in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what HD 142990 means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain HD 142990 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 142990 in simple terms?

HD 142990, also known as HR 5942 and V913 Scorpii, is a star about 470 light years from the Earth, in the constellation Scorpius. It is a 5th magnitude star, so it will be faintly visible to the naked eye of an observer far from city lights.

Why does HD 142990 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study HD 142990?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on HD 142990.

Tags

  • B-type main-sequence stars
  • Bright Star Catalogue objects
  • Helium-weak stars
  • Henry Draper Catalogue objects
  • Hipparcos objects
  • Objects with variable star designations
  • SX Arietis variables
  • Scorpius

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