Zavijava, the fifth brighest star in Virgo

The Bowl of Virgo is a large semi-circular asterism, which is visible in the spring sky and defines the northwest portion of Virgo, the Virgin. It lies southeast of the tail of Leo, the Lion, marked by mag. +2.1 Denebola (Beta (β) Leonis). The Bowl is formed from five stars in Virgo; mag. +2.8 Vindemiatrix (Epsilon (ε) Virginis), mag. +3.4 Auva (Delta (δ) Virginis), mag. +2.7 Porrima (Gamma (λ)

Virginis), mag. +3.9 Zaniah (Eta (η) Virginis) and mag. +3.6 Zavijava (Beta (β) Virginis).

Despite being designated beta, Zavijava is the fifth brightest star in Virgo. It has a spectral type of F9 V, which places it close in spectral hierarchy to our Sun’s own G2 V. The ‘V’ here refers to the fact that both stars are mainsequence dwarfs, and our Sun’s G-class follows straight on from Zavijava’s F.

Zavijava is a close neighbour, 36 lightyears from the Sun and the closest of the ‘bowl’ stars, just within Porrima’s 38 lightyear-distance. The other stars are further away.

Consequently, the brightness of Zavijava is down to proximity.

Compared to the Sun, Zavijava isn’t that dissimilar. It’s 1.4 times more massive, 1.7 times larger and has a luminosity 3.6 times higher than the Sun. It’s also pretty old, with an estimated age of 2.9 billion years. Once thought to be the host for several Jupiter-class gas giant planets, subsequent observations have failed to reach any confirmation for the existence of these objects.

Analysis of the star’s spectrum has revealed it to be metal-rich. In astrophysical terms this means it contains a higher percentage of elements heavier than helium. It’s iron content has been measured to be 30 per cent higher than the abundance in our own Sun.