J Puppis, a blue-white supergiant star in Puppis
J Puppis is a blue-white supergiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 2,133 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.24.
J Puppis (HIP 38518)
J Puppis is a blue-white supergiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 2,133 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.24. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 34.4 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 7h 53.3m, Dec -48° 6.2'
Common designations: J Puppis, HR 3090, HD 64760, Gaia DR3 5518235833732209536, HIP 38518
J Puppis has the spectral type B0.5Ib. B-type stars are hot (about 10,000 to 30,000 K), luminous and blue-white. They are massive, short-lived stars, typically only tens of millions of years old, and are common in young clusters and OB associations. Its luminosity class I marks it as a supergiant, among the most luminous and largest stars known.
How to find J Puppis in the sky
J Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -48° 6.2', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 42° N. Observers poleward of latitude 42° S see it as circumpolar: it never sets. 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 J Puppis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 118.32565615° (7h 53.3m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -48.10293513° (-48° 6.2') |
| Galactic Longitude | 262.05688199° |
| Galactic Latitude | -10.42336239° |
| Proper motion RA | -5.68 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 6.16 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 1.53 ± 0.14 mas |
| Spectral Type | B0.5Ib |
| Radial Velocity | 22.61 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 3.11 | -5.97 |
| B | 4.10 | -4.98 |
| V | 4.24 | -4.84 |
| R | 4.26 | -4.82 |
| I | 4.38 | -4.70 |
| J | 4.56 | -4.52 |
| H | 4.61 | -4.47 |
| K | 4.67 | -4.41 |
Colour index B-V: -0.14
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 654.11 pc (2,133 light years) (9.2% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -4.84
- Transverse velocity: 26.0 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 34.4 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -88.9 pc, -637.1 pc, -118.3 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -28.0 km/s, -17.5 km/s, -10.0 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.