Porrima, Gamma Virginis, is a binary star. Porrima is the name of two goddesses of prophecy, the Carmenae. The star is also sometimes known as Postvarta, Arich and Laouiyet al Aoua. The latter was translated into Latin as Angulus Latratoris and it means “the angle of the barker.”
Together with Beta, Eta, Delta and Epsilon Virginis, the star formed as asterism known as Barker, or Al ʽAwwāʼ. Gamma Virginis has a visual magnitude of 2.74 and is approximately 38.1 light years distant.
Both stars in the Gamma Virginis system are of the spectral type F0V and have similar visual magnitudes, 3.65 and 3.56.
Epsilon Virginis is the third brightest star in Virgo. It has a visual magnitude of 2.826 and is 109.6 light years distant. The star is a giant belonging to the spectral class G8 III. It is about 77 times more luminous than the Sun.
The star’s name, derived from the Latin vindēmiātrix, means “the grape gatherer” or “the grape harvestress.”
Spica is the brightest star in Virgo and the 15th brightest star in the sky. It has an apparent magnitude of 1.04. It is a rotating ellipsoidal variable star, which is to say a non-eclipsing close binary star system in which the two components do not eclipse each other, but are mutually distorted through their gravitational interaction.
The name Spica comes from the Latin spīca virginis, which means “Virgo’s ear of grain.”
Spica is classified as a blue giant of the spectral types B1 III-IV and B2 V, approximately 260 light years distant from the solar system. It is one of the nearest massive double stars to the solar system. The primary star is midway between the subgiant and giant stage of evolution (spectral class B1 III-IV) and about 12,100 times brighter than the Sun.
Beta Virginis belongs to the spectral class F9 V and is only 35.65 light years distant from the Sun. Even though it is designated beta, it is only the fifth brightest star in the constellation.
The star’s traditional name, Zavijava (sometimes Zavijah, Zavyava or Zawijah), is derived from the Arabic zāwiyat al-cawwa’, which means “the corner of the barking dog.” It was also sometimes known as Alaraph
Delta Virginis is a red giant belonging to the spectral class M3 III, approximately 198 light years distant. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.4 and can be seen without binoculars. It has a mass 1.4 times solar, but with a radius 48 times that of the Sun, it is about 468 times more luminous. Delta Virginis is a high-velocity star, moving at the speed of more than 30 km s–1 relative to the motion of the neighbouring stars.
The star is classified as a semiregular variable and its brightness varies between 3.32 and 3.40. It is a suspected binary star with an 11th magnitude star – a K-type dwarf – located 80 arc seconds away. The dwarf is believed to orbit the star with a period of over 200,000 years, but this has not been confirmed.