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A huge orange star, more than 400 light years from the Solar System. It is the brightest
star in the constellation of the Southern Triangle.
Its name Atria is presumably derived from a contraction of its Bayer desigation:
Alpha Trianguli Australis.
Atria is a very massive and luminous body, though as an orange, K-type, star its surface
temperature is a little lower than that of the Sun. There are indications of strong
flare activity on its surface, and a small and faint binary companion has recently been
detected.
Its high intrinsic luminosity means that Atria shines brightly in Earth's sky: a magnitude
of +1.9 makes it the thirty-second brightest star, and considerably more prominent
than its counterpart in the Northern Triangle, Metallah.
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