3. Spica, or Alpha Virginis, is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo It is 10 degrees South of the celestial equator. Spica, which is Latin, means “ear of wheat” Spica is the 16 th brightest star in the night sky. http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighlights/spicahighlights.html

4. Virgo is a constellation portraying the fertility goddess Spica got it’s name, “ear of wheat”, because Virgo is holding a shear of wheat Spica is the brightest star of Virgo

5. Spica’s temperature is 22,400 Kelvin, or 41,743.4 Fahrenheit Spica has an apparent magnitude of 0.98, 25.76 more than the Sun. However, it has an absolute magnitude of -3.55, which is 8.38 less than the Sun. Spica

6. The orbit of Spica and it’s companion are traveling about 56 miles per second It takes about 4 days to travel around it’s barycenter, or the center of mass in which two or more bodies travel around Spica’s companion star appears about half the size of Spica, and is roughly 11 million miles away from it. http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighlights/spicahighlights.html

7. Spica is considered a dwarf star, although it is still 10 times more massive than the sun. It is classified as a B1 Blue Dwarf The optimum visibility period is April

8. Spica is about 262 light years away It’s scientific position is: -RA: 13h 25m 12s, dec: -11° 09’ 41’ It is also one of several stars that the moon can eclipse.

11. http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/spica.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630110/Virgo http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/spica.html http://www.astronomynotes.com/starprop/s4.htm http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/spicahighli ghts/spicahighlights.html http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/stars/spica.html