Epsilon Corvi is a star in the southern constellation of Corvus. It has the proper name Minkar, pronounced ; Epsilon Corvi is its Bayer designation. This star is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.02. Based on parallax measurements, it is located at a distance of from Sun.
This is a red giant star with a stellar classification of K2 III, having consumed the hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence. With about three times the Sun's mass, it has expanded to 57 times the Sun's radius. The photosphere irradiates 930 times more energy than the Sun and has an effective temperature of , giving it an orange hue that is characteristic of a K-type star. It spent much of its life as a main sequence star of spectral type B5V.
Etymology Epsilon Corvi is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from ε Corvi and abbreviated Epsilon Crv or ε Crv. This star has the traditional name Minkar, pronounced , from the Arabic منقار minqar meaning "beak [of the crow]"
In Chinese, (), meaning Chariot (asterism), refers to an asterism consisting of ε Corvi, γ Corvi, δ Corvi and β Corvi. 中國星座神話, written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, . Consequently, ε Corvi itself is known as (, .). 香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表 , Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.
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