It bore the traditional, medieval names Auva and Minelauva[12] from the Arabic من العواء min al-ʽawwāʼ, meaning "in the lunar mansionofʽawwaʼ" (a name of unknown meaning).[13] In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[14] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Minelauva for this star on 30 June 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.[11]
InChinese, 太微左垣 (Tài Wēi Zuǒ Yuán), meaning Left Wall of Supreme Palace Enclosure, refers to an asterism consisting of Delta Virginis, Eta Virginis, Gamma Virginis, Epsilon Virginis and Alpha Comae Berenices.[16] Consequently, the Chinese name for Delta Virginis itself is 太微左垣三 (Tài Wēi Zuǒ Yuán sān, English: the Third Star of Left Wall of Supreme Palace Enclosure),[17] representing 東次相 (Dōngcìxiāng), meaning 'The Second Eastern Minister'.[18] 東次相 (Dōngcìxiāng), westernized into Tsze Seang by R.H. Allen and meaning "the Second Minister of State".[19]
The spectrum of Delta Virginis matches a stellar classification of M1 III,[4] which places it among the category of evolved stars called red giants. Indeed, the outer atmosphere of this star has expanded to around 66 times the radius of the Sun.[4] Even though it has just 1.4 times the mass of the Sun,[8][4] this wide envelope gives it a luminosity of roughly 500 times the Sun's.[4] This energy is being radiated from a relatively cool outer atmosphere that has an effective temperature of 3,657 K.[4] It is this cool temperature that gives it the orange-red glow of an M-type star.[20]
The outer envelope of this star is undergoing a type of pulsation that occurs in a class of variable stars known as semiregular variables and its brightness varies from magnitude +3.32 to +3.40.[2] Based upon frequency analysis of the observed light curve, the star's variability exhibits multiple periods of pulsation. The detected periods are 13.0, 17.2, 25.6, 110.1 and 125.8 days.[2] This is a high-velocity star with a peculiar velocity of more than 30 km s−1 relative to the mean motion of other stars in the vicinity.[22]
^ abcCelis S., L. (October 1975), "Photoelectric photometry of late-type variable stars", Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 22: 9–17, Bibcode:1975A&AS...22....9C
^Massarotti, Alessandro; et al. (January 2008), "Rotational and Radial Velocities for a Sample of 761 HIPPARCOS Giants and the Role of Binarity", The Astronomical Journal, 135 (1): 209–231, Bibcode:2008AJ....135..209M, doi:10.1088/0004-6256/135/1/209
^Hoffleit, D.; Warren, W. H. (1995). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Hoffleit+, 1991)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: V/50. Originally Published in: 1964BS....C......0H. 5050. Bibcode:1995yCat.5050....0H.
^Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub. ISBN978-1-931559-44-7.
