56 Arietis

This is a magnetic, chemically peculiar star of the silicon type with a stellar classification of B9pSi, and it has a rapid rotation period of 17.5 hours. This period is increasing by about two seconds every hundred years. The star displays evidence of a five year period for procession of its axis. Sanford S. Provin discovered that 56 Arietis is a variable star in 1952, and reported the discovery in 1953. It is the prototype of a class of variable stars known as SX Arietis variables, which are rotationally variable stars with strong magnetic fields. It ranges in brightness from 5.75 down to 5.81 with a cyclical period matching its rotation rate.