The fourth star in the Nautical Almanac is Beta Ceti, also known as
Deneb Kaitos ("The Tail of The Whale") or Diphda ("The Frog"). It is the
brightest star in the constellation Cetus (the Whale or the Sea
Monster), a second magnitude red supergiant. Diphda is approximately one
billion years old. After a long life as a "main sequence star" like the
Sun, it has consumed its hydrogen and has swelled up to eighteen times
the diameter of our Sun. It has three times the mass of our Sun.
Although it is much cooler than our yellow Sun, it is about 145 times as
bright and is emitting 2,000 times the X-rays. It lies just over 96
light years from Earth. It is very evident in the sky, being the
brightest object in an otherwise dark region.
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