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A third magnitude star in the central regions of Virgo, lying just to the north of the line of the Ecliptic in the sky. Though it appears as a single star to the naked eye, Porrima is a binary system, and the two stars that make it up are comparatively close neighbours to the Solar System, in galactic terms, at a distance of about thirty-nine light years.
The two stars of this system, individually designated Porrima A and Porrima B, are very similar bright yellow stars pursuing a mutual orbit around one another over a period of about 169 years. The stars have just passed their point of closest approach (or periastron) as seen from Earth, and are now slowly moving apart from one another.
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