Eta Ursae Minoris is about one billion years old and has an estimated 1.35 times the mass of the Sun.[7] It has a high rate of spin with a projected rotational velocity of 84.8 km/s.[3] These coordinates mark a source of X-ray emission with a luminosity of 11.5×1028 erg s−1.[6] Eta Ursae Minoris may form a wide binary system with a magnitude 15.3 companion star, located at an angular separation of 228.5 arc seconds.[4]
In some Arabic star charts it is labeled انور الفرقدين ʼanwar al-farqadayn, "the brighter of the two calves", and paired with ζ Ursae Minoris as اخفي الفرقدين akhfā al-farkadain "the dimmer of the two calves". The names may originally refer to a pair of Ibexes, and are more properly applied to β UMi and γ UMi respectively, the brighter two stars in the rectangle of Ursa Minor.[12]
^ abcMermilliod, J.-C. (1986), "Compilation of Eggen's UBV data, transformed to UBV (unpublished)", Catalogue of Eggen's UBV Data, Bibcode:1986EgUBV........0M. See the SIMBAD Measurements entry for details.
^ abcSchröder, C.; Reiners, Ansgar; Schmitt, Jürgen H. M. M. (January 2009), "Ca II HK emission in rapidly rotating stars. Evidence for an onset of the solar-type dynamo", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 493 (3): 1099–1107, Bibcode:2009A&A...493.1099S, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200810377
^ abPizzolato, N.; et al. (September 2000), "Evolution of X-ray activity of 1-3 Msun late-type stars in early post-main-sequence phases", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 361: 614–628, Bibcode:2000A&A...361..614P.
^ abcdeDavid, Trevor J.; Hillenbrand, Lynne A. (2015), "The Ages of Early-Type Stars: Strömgren Photometric Methods Calibrated, Validated, Tested, and Applied to Hosts and Prospective Hosts of Directly Imaged Exoplanets", The Astrophysical Journal, 804 (2): 146, arXiv:1501.03154, Bibcode:2015ApJ...804..146D, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/804/2/146, S2CID33401607.