HD 79476 (HIP 45144)

HD 79476 is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Carina. At 1,509 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 8.16.

Sky position: RA 9h 11.9m, Dec -58° 47.7'

Common designations: HD 79476, HIP 45144, Gaia DR3 5300542839356576384

HD 79476 has the spectral type B7/8V. 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 V means it is a main-sequence (dwarf) star, still fusing hydrogen into helium in its core like the Sun.

How to find HD 79476 in the sky

HD 79476 lies in Carina. With a declination of -58° 47.7', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 31° N. Observers poleward of latitude 31° S see it as circumpolar: it never sets. It is just beyond naked-eye visibility; binoculars will show it easily. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around March, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.

Tabulated data for HD 79476

Astrometry and spectroscopy

Photometry

Colour index B-V: -0.05

Derivations

• Heliocentric distance: 462.60 pc (1,509 light years) (1.2% margin of error)
• Absolute visual magnitude: -0.17
• Transverse velocity: 37.6 km/s

Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.