Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, hence the North American name, Little Dipper: seven stars with four in its bowl like its partner the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Ursa Minor has traditionally been important for navigation, particularly by mariners, because of Polaris being the north pole star.
W Ursae Majoris is the variable star designation for a binary star system in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. It has an apparent visual magnitude of about 7.9, which is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. However, it can be viewed with a small telescope. Parallax measurements place it at a distance of roughly 169 light years (52 parsecs) from Earth.
Zeta Ursae Minoris, which is Latinized from ζ Ursae Minoris, is a single star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor, forming the northernmost part of the bowl in this "little dipper" asterism. The star has a white hue and is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +4.28. It is located at a distance of approximately 369 light-years from the Sun based on parallax, but is drifting further closer with a radial velocity of about –13 km/s.
Lambda Ursae Minoris is a star in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is an M-type red giant with an apparent magnitude of +6.38 and is approximately 880 light years from Earth.
Pi2 Ursae Minoris, which is Latinized from π2 UMi Ursae Minoris, is a binary star system in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. The pair have a combined apparent visual magnitude of 6.89, which can be viewed with a pair of binoculars. They are located at a distance of approximately 400 light years from the Sun based on parallax, but are drifting closer with a radial velocity of −32 km/s.
AM Herculis is a binary variable star located in the constellation Hercules. This star, along with the star AN Ursae Majoris, is the prototype for a category of cataclysmic variable stars called polars, or AM Her type stars.
2 Ursae Minoris is a single star a few degrees away from the northern celestial pole. Despite its Flamsteed designation, the star is actually located in the constellation Cepheus. This changed occurred when the constellation boundaries were formally set in 1930 by Eugene Delporte. Therefore, the star is usually referred only by its catalog numbers such as HR 285 or HD 5848. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.244. This object is located 280 light years away and is moving further from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of +8 km/s. It is a candidate member of the Hyades Supercluster.
S Virginis is a Mira-type variable star in the constellation Virgo. Located approximately 700 parsecs (2,300 ly) distant, it varies between magnitudes 6.3 and 13.2 over a period of approximately 375 days.
11 Ursae Minoris is a single star located approximately 410 light years away in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. The star is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.15. It is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −17.5 km/s.
24 Ursae Majoris is a variable star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major, located 101.5 light-years from the Sun. It has the variable star designation DK Ursae Majoris and the Bayer designation d Ursae Majoris; 24 Ursae Majoris is the Flamsteed designation. This object is visible to the naked eye as a faint, yellow-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.54. It is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −27 km/s, and is expected to come as close as 51 light-years in around 879,000 years.
RR Ursae Minoris, abbreviated RR UMi, is a binary star system in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It can be viewed with the naked eye, typically having an apparent visual magnitude of around 4.710. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 10.0 mas as seen from Earth's orbit, it is located 330 light years away. The system is moving further from the Sun with a heliocentric radial velocity of +6 km/s.
RZ Gruis is a nova-like binary system in the constellation Grus composed of a white dwarf and an F-type main-sequence star. It is generally of apparent magnitude of 12.3 with occasional dimming to 13.4. Its components are thought to orbit each other roughly every 8.5 to 10 hours. It belongs to the UX Ursae Majoris subgroup of cataclysmic variable star systems, where material from the donor star is drawn to the white dwarf where it forms an accretion disc that remains bright and outshines the two component stars. The system is around 1,434 light-years away from Earth; or as much as 1,770 light years based on a Gaia parallax.
T Ursae Minoris is a variable star in the constellation Ursa Minor, located 2′30″ west-southwest of 3 Ursae Minoris toward the western border of the constellation with Draco.
Z Ursae Minoris is a carbon star and R Coronae Borealis variable in the constellation Ursa Minor.
RW Ursae Minoris is a cataclysmic variable star system that flared up as a nova in the constellation Ursa Minor in 1956.
R Ursae Minoris is a star in the constellation Ursa Minor. A red giant of spectral type M7IIIe, it is a semiregular variable ranging from magnitude 8.5 to 11.5 over a period of 325 days.
SS Ursae Minoris is a cataclysmic variable star system in the constellation Ursa Minor. It was discovered visually and by its X-ray emissions separately in 1982 before they were understood to be coming from the same object. It is classified as a SU Ursae Majoris variable subclass of dwarf nova in that it has both 'normal' outbursts of increased brightness as well as even brighter 'superoutbursts'. However, unlike other SU Ursae Majoris stars, the superoutbursts are of longer duration than the regular outbursts.
RU Ursae Minoris is a binary star system in the constellation Ursa Minor. Its apparent magnitude ranges from 10 to 10.66 over 0.52 days as one star passes in front of the other relative to observers on Earth. Its component stars were calculated to be a primary star of spectral type F0IV/V and a secondary of spectral type K5V, both slightly more luminous than their spectral types indicate. The system is semidetached, as the secondary star is filling its Roche lobe and transferring matter to the primary. The primary is between 2.2 and 2.3 times as massive as the Sun, with 1.8 times its radius and around 8 times its luminosity. The secondary has around 0.72 times the Sun's mass, 1.1 times its radius and between 0.58 and 0.86 times its luminosity.
W Ursae Minoris is an eclipsing binary star system in the constellation Ursa Minor. Its apparent magnitude ranges from 8.51 to 9.59 over 1.7 days as one star passes in front of the other relative to observers on Earth. The combined spectrum of the system is A1/2V.
BZ Ursae Majoris is a dwarf nova star system in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. It consists of a white dwarf primary in a close orbit with a red dwarf. The latter star is donating mass, which is accumulating in an accretion disk orbiting the white dwarf. The system is located at a distance of approximately 505 light years from the Sun based on parallax measurements.
