Mimosa (star)
Mimosa is the second brightest object in the southern constellation of Crux after Acrux, and the 21st brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation β Crucis, which is Beta Crucis in Latin. Its name when shortened is Beta Cru or β Cru. Mimosa is part of the prominent asterism called the Southern Cross. It is a binary star or a possible triple star system. It is also one of the closest stars with a infrared bow shock.
Based on parallax measurements, Mimosa is 277 light years from Earth. In 1957, German astronomor Wulff-Dieter Heintz discovered that it is a spectroscopic binary with components that are too close together to resolve with a telescope.[1] The pair orbit each other every five years with a guessed separation that changes from 5.4 to 12.0 AU.[2] The age of the system is only 8 to 11 million years.[3]