50 Virginis, an orange giant star in Virgo
50 Virginis is an orange giant star in the constellation Virgo. At 672 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.94.
50 Virginis (HIP 64224)
50 Virginis is an orange giant star in the constellation Virgo. At 672 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.94. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 17.6 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 13h 9.8m, Dec -10° 19.8'
Common designations: 50 Virginis, HR 4961, HD 114287, HIP 64224, Gaia DR3 3622861612040171264
50 Virginis has the spectral type K4III. K-type stars are orange stars with surface temperatures of about 3,900 to 5,300 K. Their spectra are rich in neutral metal lines and, in the cooler examples, molecular bands. Its luminosity class III marks it as a giant: an evolved star that has left the main sequence and swollen to many times its original size.
How to find 50 Virginis in the sky
50 Virginis lies in Virgo. With a declination of -10° 19.8', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 80° N. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around May, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for 50 Virginis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 197.43867172° (13h 9.8m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -10.32933968° (-10° 19.8') |
| Galactic Longitude | 310.30787374° |
| Galactic Latitude | 52.27988980° |
| Proper motion RA | -13.52 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -9.31 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 4.85 ± 0.06 mas |
| Spectral Type | K4III |
| Radial Velocity | -7.30 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 7.44 | 0.87 |
| V | 5.94 | -0.63 |
| J | 3.44 | -3.13 |
| H | 2.63 | -3.94 |
| K | 2.41 | -4.16 |
Colour index B-V: +1.49
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 206.05 pc (672 light years) (1.3% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.63
- Transverse velocity: 16.0 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 17.6 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 81.5 pc, -96.1 pc, 163.0 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -9.9 km/s, -10.3 km/s, -10.4 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.