Beta Leporis ( β Leporis, abbreviated Beta Lep, β Lep), formally named Nihal ,[
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Nomenclature
Beta Leporis is the star's Bayer designation. It is also known by the traditional named Nihal, Arabic for "quenching their thirst". The occasional spelling Nibal appears to be due to a misreading.[ In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)]
In Chinese, 廁 (Cè), meaning Toilet, refers to an asterism consisting of β Leporis, Alpha Leporis, Gamma Leporis and Delta Leporis.[ 中國星座神話, written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, .] Consequently, the Chinese name for β Leporis itself is 廁二 (Cè èr), "the Second Star of Toilet".[ 香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表 , Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.]
Properties
Based on parallax measurements from the Hipparcos astrometry satellite,[ this star is located about from the Earth. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 2.84 and a stellar classification of G5 II. The mass of this star is 3.5 times the solar mass and it is about 240 million years old,][ which is the sufficient time for a star this massive to consume the hydrogen at its core and evolve away from the main sequence, becoming a G-type star bright giant.][ The angular diameter of Beta Leporis, after correction for limb darkening, is .][ At the distance to this star, it yield a physical radius of 15.9 times the radius of the Sun.][
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This is a double star system and may be a binary star, whereby the second star has a brightness of 7.34 mag.[ Component B has been observed to fluctuate in brightness and is catalogued as suspected variable star NSV 2008.][
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{0.0046491\ \text{AU}/R_{\bigodot}} \\
& \approx 31.78\cdot R_{\bigodot}
\end{align}
