Beta Arae
Beta Arae, the brightest star in the constellation of Ara, is a very luminous, relatively young, giant star with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.8. Parallax measurements place it at roughly from Earth.
The spectrum of this star matches a stellar classification of K3 Ib-IIa, with the luminosity class notation 'Ib-IIa' indicating that the star lies part way between a higher luminosity bright giant and a lower luminosity supergiant. This represents two of the evolutionary stages that a massive star passes through after it has exhausted the hydrogen at its core. Beta Arae is radiating energy from its outer envelope at an effective temperature of, which causes it to take on the orange hue of a K-type star. This enlarged star appears to be rotating slowly with a projected rotational velocity of about. The abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, its metallicity, is more than three times that of the Sun.
Rarely, this star is called Vasat-ül-cemre a Turkisation of Arabic وسط الجمر, meaning "middle of the embers." The constellation is named in Arabic المجمرة, meaning brazier/incense-burner. In Chinese, 杵, meaning Pestle, refers to an asterism of β, σ and α Arae. The Chinese name for β Arae is 杵三
