Alpha Crucis, also called 

Acrux, brightest star in the southern constellation Crux (the

Southern Cross) and the 13th brightest star in the sky. Alpha Crucis is about 320 light-
years from Earth. It is a multiple star system consisting of three B-type stars, the
spectroscopic binary α1 and α2, that are of roughly the same brightness and are close
enough together to appear as one star to the naked eye. The stars of α 1 orbit around each
other every 76 days, but it takes α1 and α2 about 1,500 years to orbit each other.
Erik Gregersen
Crux
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Crux
constellation
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Alternate titles: The Southern Cross
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Crux, (Latin: Cross) , also called the Southern Cross, constellation lying in the

southern sky at about 12 hours 30 minutes right ascension and 60°
south declination and visible only from south of about latitude 30° N (i.e., the latitude
of North Africa and Florida). It appears on the flags of Australia, Brazil, New
Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.
French architect and cartographer Augustine Royer first described it as a constellation
in a set of star maps published in 1679, but it has been written about since antiquity. The
constellation has five bright stars, one badly placed from the viewpoint of symmetry, so
the shape of the cross formed by the stars is somewhat irregular. Two of Crux’s
stars, Alpha Crucis and Beta Crucis, are the 1