y Carinae, a white supergiant star in Carina
y Carinae is a white supergiant star in the constellation Carina. At 8,295 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.62.
y Carinae (HIP 54751)
y Carinae is a white supergiant star in the constellation Carina. At 8,295 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.62. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 80.0 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 11h 12.6m, Dec -60° 19.1'
Common designations: y Carinae, V533 Carinae, HR 4352, HD 97534, HIP 54751, Gaia DR3 5337672556798367360
y Carinae has the spectral type A5Iae:. A-type stars are white stars with surface temperatures of roughly 7,500 to 10,000 K. Their spectra are dominated by strong hydrogen lines, and many of them rotate rapidly. Its luminosity class I marks it as a supergiant, among the most luminous and largest stars known.
How to find y Carinae in the sky
y Carinae lies in Carina. With a declination of -60° 19.1', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 30° N. Observers poleward of latitude 30° 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 April, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for y Carinae
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 168.15005514° (11h 12.6m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -60.31762630° (-60° 19.1') |
| Galactic Longitude | 290.98532239° |
| Galactic Latitude | 0.24127338° |
| Proper motion RA | -6.30 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 2.02 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 0.39 ± 0.09 mas |
| Spectral Type | A5Iae: |
| Radial Velocity | -6.32 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 5.20 | -6.83 |
| B | 5.17 | -6.86 |
| V | 4.62 | -7.41 |
| R | 4.07 | -7.96 |
| I | 3.71 | -8.32 |
| J | 3.46 | -8.56 |
| H | 3.07 | -8.96 |
| K | 3.11 | -8.92 |
Colour index B-V: +0.55
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 2,543.23 pc (8,295 light years) (22.5% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -7.41
- Transverse velocity: 79.8 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 80.0 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 910.8 pc, -2374.5 pc, 10.7 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -76.6 km/s, -22.6 km/s, -5.7 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.