KQ Puppis, a red supergiant star in Puppis
KQ Puppis is a red supergiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 2,409 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.97.
KQ Puppis (HIP 36773)
KQ Puppis is a red supergiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 2,409 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.97. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 35.8 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 7h 33.8m, Dec -14° 31.4'
Common designations: KQ Puppis, HR 2902, HD 60414, HD 60415, HIP 36773, Gaia DR3 3030133379058134144
KQ Puppis has the spectral type M1Iabe+B2. M-type stars are cool red stars below about 3,900 K whose spectra are dominated by titanium oxide molecular bands. Red dwarfs, red giants and red supergiants all fall in this class. Its luminosity class I marks it as a supergiant, among the most luminous and largest stars known.
How to find KQ Puppis in the sky
KQ Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -14° 31.4', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 75° N. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around February, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for KQ Puppis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 113.44986160° (7h 33.8m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -14.52390399° (-14° 31.4') |
| Galactic Longitude | 230.66692950° |
| Galactic Latitude | 2.52109250° |
| Proper motion RA | -7.00 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 4.00 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 1.35 ± 0.14 mas |
| Spectral Type | M1Iabe+B2 |
| Radial Velocity | 22.00 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 6.67 | -2.67 |
| B | 6.38 | -2.96 |
| V | 4.97 | -4.37 |
| R | 3.41 | -5.93 |
| I | 2.08 | -7.26 |
| J | 1.25 | -8.09 |
| H | 0.39 | -8.95 |
| K | 0.11 | -9.23 |
Colour index B-V: +1.41
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 738.66 pc (2,409 light years) (10.6% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -4.37
- Transverse velocity: 28.2 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 35.8 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -467.7 pc, -570.8 pc, 32.5 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -33.0 km/s, -2.2 km/s, -13.7 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.