Editing Monoceros (section)

===Stars===
{{See also|List of stars in Monoceros}}
Monoceros contains only a few fourth magnitude stars, making it difficult to see with the naked eye. [[Alpha Monocerotis]] has a [[visual magnitude]] of 3.93, while for [[Gamma Monocerotis]] it is 3.98.

[[Beta Monocerotis]] is a [[triple star system]]; the three stars form a fixed triangle. The visual magnitudes of the stars are 4.7, 5.2, and 6.1. [[William Herschel]] discovered it in 1781 and called it "one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens".{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

[[Epsilon Monocerotis]] is a fixed [[binary star|binary]], with visual magnitudes of 4.5 and 6.5.

[[S Monocerotis]], or 15 Monocerotis, is a bluish white [[variable star]] and is located at the center of [[NGC 2264]]. The variation in its magnitude is slight (4.2–4.6). It has a companion star of visual magnitude 8.

[[V838 Monocerotis]], a variable [[red supergiant]] star, had an outburst starting on January 6, 2002; in February of that year, its brightness increased by a factor of 10,000 in one day. After the outburst was over, the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] was able to observe a [[light echo]], which illuminated the dust surrounding the star.<ref name="objects">{{cite book |last1=Wilkins |first1=Jamie |url=https://archive.org/details/300astronomicalo0000wilk |title=300 Astronomical Objects: A Visual Reference to the Universe |last2=Dunn |first2=Robert |date=2006 |publisher=Firefly Books |isbn=978-1-55407-175-3 |edition=1st |location=Buffalo, New York |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Monoceros also contains [[Plaskett's Star]], a massive binary system whose combined mass is estimated, per 2008 calculations, to be almost 100 solar masses.<ref name=aaa489_2_713>{{citation | display-authors=1 | last1=Linder | first1=N. | last2=Rauw | first2=G. | last3=Martins | first3=F. | last4=Sana | first4=H. | last5=De Becker | first5=M. | last6=Gosset | first6=E. | title=High-resolution optical spectroscopy of Plaskett's star | journal=Astronomy and Astrophysics | volume=489 | issue=2 | pages=713–723 |date=October 2008 | doi=10.1051/0004-6361:200810003 | bibcode=2008A&A...489..713L |arxiv = 0807.4823 | s2cid=118431215 }}</ref>

Monoceros is the location of the binary system [[Scholz's Star]], host to a [[red dwarf]] primary and [[brown dwarf]] secondary; the system performed a close flypast of the Solar System approximately 70,000 years ago, travelling within 120,000 astronomical units of the Sun within the [[Oort cloud]].<ref name="Mamajek2015">{{cite journal |last1=Mamajek |first1=Eric E. |last2=Barenfeld |first2=Scott A. |last3=Ivanov |first3=Valentin D. |year=2015 |title=The Closest Known Flyby of a Star to the Solar System |journal=[[The Astrophysical Journal]] |volume=800 |issue=1 |pages=L17 |arxiv=1502.04655 |bibcode=2015ApJ...800L..17M |doi=10.1088/2041-8205/800/1/L17 |s2cid=40618530 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

One of the nearest known [[black hole]]s to the Solar System is in this constellation. The binary star system [[A0620-00]] in the constellation of Monoceros is at a distance of roughly 3,300 light-years (1,000 parsecs) away. The black hole is estimated to be 6.6 solar masses.