Alpha Muscae
Alpha Muscae (α Muscae, α Mus) is a star in the southern circumpolar constellation of Musca. With an apparent visual magnitude of +2.7, it is the brightest star in the constellation. The distance to this star has been determined using parallax measurements, giving an estimate of about from Earth.
Musca
Also known as Nova Muscae 1983, GQ Muscae is a binary system consisting of a white dwarf and small star that is about 10% as massive as the Sun. The two orbit each other every 1.4 hours. The white dwarf accumulates material from its companion star via its accretion disc. After a certain amount has accumulated, the star erupts, as it did in 1983, reaching a magnitude of 7.2. Discovered with a magnitude of 7.1 on 18 January 1983, it was the first nova from which X-rays were detected. The soft X-ray transient GRS 1124-683 (also known as Nova Muscae 1991) is a binary object consisting of an orange main-sequence star (GU Muscae) of spectral type K3V–K4V and a black hole of around six solar masses. During the 1991 outburst which led to its discovery, radiation was produced through a process of positron annihilation. GR Muscae is an X-ray source composed of a neutron star of between 1.2 and 1.8 times the mass of our Sun and a low-mass star likely to be around the mass of the Sun in close orbit. Finally, SY Muscae is a symbiotic star system composed of a red giant and white dwarf, where although the larger star is transferring mass to the smaller, no periodic eruption occurs nor does an accretion disc form. The star system varies in magnitude from 10.2 to 12.7 over a period of 624.5 days.