Lambda Crucis, a blue-white main-sequence star in Crux
Lambda Crucis is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Crux. At 372 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.60.
Lambda Crucis (HIP 63007)
Lambda Crucis is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Crux. At 372 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.60. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 22.9 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 12h 54.7m, Dec -59° 8.8'
Common designations: Lambda Crucis, HR 4897, HD 112078, Gaia DR3 6057088443681190272, HIP 63007
Lambda Crucis has the spectral type B3Vne. 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 Lambda Crucis in the sky
Lambda Crucis lies in Crux. With a declination of -59° 8.8', 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 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 Lambda Crucis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 193.66326138° (12h 54.7m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -59.14670256° (-59° 8.8') |
| Galactic Longitude | 303.34500045° |
| Galactic Latitude | 3.72246631° |
| Proper motion RA | -33.05 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -14.75 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 8.77 ± 0.10 mas |
| Spectral Type | B3Vne |
| Radial Velocity | 12.00 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 3.86 | -1.42 |
| B | 4.45 | -0.83 |
| V | 4.60 | -0.68 |
| J | 5.27 | -0.02 |
| H | 5.01 | -0.27 |
| K | 4.97 | -0.31 |
Colour index B-V: -0.15
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 113.99 pc (372 light years) (1.2% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.68
- Transverse velocity: 19.6 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 22.9 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 62.5 pc, -95.0 pc, 7.4 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -8.1 km/s, -20.3 km/s, -7.0 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.