A study with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer revealed that Altair is not spherical, but is flattened at the poles due to its high rate of rotation. This is a significant fraction of the star's estimated breakup speed of 400 km/s. Īltair rotates rapidly, with a velocity at the equator of approximately 286 km/s.
: 194 Altair is currently in the G-cloud-a nearby interstellar cloud, an accumulation of gas and dust. It is located at a distance of 16.7 light-years (5.1 parsecs) from the Sun. Altair is an A-type main-sequence star with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.77 and is one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle asterism the other two vertices are marked by Deneb and Vega. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql or α Aql.
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