Aldebaran

system

Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus and the 14th-brightest in the sky, 66.6 light-years away — a cool orange giant more than 40 times the Sun's width, gleaming as the fiery 'eye' of the Bull (seen against, but well in front of, the Hyades cluster). A long-suspected giant planet is now regarded as unconfirmed, most likely a signal of the star's own churning surface, so none is shown.

Open in 3D viewSee Aldebaran in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type

Orange giant

Distance

66.6 light-years

Brightness

V 0.86 — the eye of Taurus

Confirmed planets

0 (1 disputed)

Science

Classification

Type: Single red-giant system
Central star: Aldebaran — K5III orange giant (~3900 K, ~45 R☉)

Planets

Confirmed planets: None
Disputed candidate: Aldebaran b · flagged controversial by the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Distance

Distance: 66.6 light-years · in front of (unrelated to) the Hyades cluster

How we know

Note: A giant planet around Aldebaran was proposed in 2015, but by 2019 the signal was shown to more likely arise from the star's own pulsations and starspots; the NASA Exoplanet Archive flags it controversial (checked 2026-07-05), so no planet is shown here. Map distance is symbolic; the real gap is 66.6 light-years.

Discovery & history

Method: Naked-eye star
Name: From Arabic al-dabaran, 'the follower' (of the Pleiades); Alpha Tauri.

Known since antiquity as the Bull's eye; a proposed giant planet (2015) was shown by 2019 to more likely be stellar activity, so none is counted.

Images

Where to find it — in Taurus, the Bull (IAU constellation chart). To the eye it is a single point of light; no telescope has imaged its surface. — IAU / Sky & Telescope, R. Sinnott & R. Fienberg (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image