4 Puppis, a yellow-white main-sequence star in Puppis
4 Puppis is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Puppis. At 221 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.03.
4 Puppis (HIP 37891)
4 Puppis is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Puppis. At 221 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.03. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 6.2 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 7h 45.9m, Dec -14° 33.8'
Common designations: 4 Puppis, HR 3015, HD 62952, HIP 37891, Gaia DR3 3029560533494670592
4 Puppis has the spectral type F2V. F-type stars are yellow-white stars of about 6,000 to 7,500 K, slightly hotter and more massive than the Sun. Their hydrogen lines are weaker than in A stars and metal lines become prominent. Its luminosity class V means it is a main-sequence (dwarf) star, still fusing hydrogen into helium in its core like the Sun.
How to find 4 Puppis in the sky
4 Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -14° 33.8', 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 4 Puppis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 116.48695652° (7h 45.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -14.56380520° (-14° 33.8') |
| Galactic Longitude | 232.14372721° |
| Galactic Latitude | 5.06524402° |
| Proper motion RA | -10.78 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 5.99 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 14.76 ± 0.18 mas |
| Spectral Type | F2V |
| Radial Velocity | -4.82 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.34 | 1.19 |
| V | 5.03 | 0.87 |
| J | 4.57 | 0.42 |
| H | 4.33 | 0.17 |
| K | 4.24 | 0.09 |
Colour index B-V: +0.32
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 67.75 pc (221 light years) (1.2% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.87
- Transverse velocity: 4.0 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 6.2 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -41.4 pc, -53.3 pc, 6.0 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 0.2 km/s, 5.7 km/s, -2.5 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.