Kappa Centauri, a blue subgiant star in Centaurus

Kappa Centauri (HIP 73334)

Kappa Centauri is a blue subgiant star in the constellation Centaurus. At 381 light years away, it is the 199th brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 3.13. Kappa Centauri is a component of a multiple-star system. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 19.7 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 20,700 and 24,600 light years from the center of the Galaxy.

Sky position: RA 14h 59.2m, Dec -42° 6'

Common designations: Kappa Centauri, HIP 73334, HD 132200, HR 5576

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Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
Deluxe Astronomy Poster Brightest stars in Centaurus:
(list all)

Rank	Mag.	Star
3	1.35	Alpha Centauri B
4	2.06	Menkent
5	2.20	Gamma Centauri
6	2.29	Epsilon Centauri
7	2.33	Eta Centauri
8	2.55	Zeta Centauri
9	2.58	Delta Centauri
10	2.75	Iota Centauri
11	3.11	Lambda Centauri

12

| 3.13

) Kappa Centauri

Rank	Mag.	Star
13	3.41	Nu Centauri
14	3.47	Mu Centauri
15	3.83	Phi Centauri
16	3.85	Tau Centauri
17	3.87	Upsilon-1 Centauri
18	3.90	Pi Centauri
19	3.90	d Centauri

Location of Kappa Centauri circled Map detail from Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
Hover over other bright stars to identify or click to jump.

Galactic Orbit of Kappa Centauri
(compared to the Sun)

E

ccentricity: 8.7% vs. 16.0%

Angle φ : 130.9°vs. 26.0°

Semi-major axis : 6,943 pc vs. 8,686 pc

Semi-minor axis: 6,917 pc vs. 8,574 pc

Focus-to-center

: 602 pcvs. 1,388 pc

Semilatus rectum : 6,891 pc vs. 8,464 pc

Perigalacticon: 6,341 pc vs. 7,297 pc

Apogalacticon

: 7,546 pcvs. 10,074 pc
  Some Tabulated XHIP Data for Kappa Centauri
(see also: SIMBAD)

Astrometry
2007A&A...474..653V

Position	Proper Motion
Right Ascension:	224.79041163° ±0.45 mas	-20.40 ±1.00 mas/yr.
Declination:	-42.10414165° ±0.30 mas	-25.30 ±0.90 mas/yr.
Galactic Longitude:	326.87204457°	-30.14 mas/yr.
Galactic Latitude:	14.75373424°	-12.17 mas/yr.

Parallax: 8.51 ± 0.54 mas

Spectrography

Spectral Type: B2 IV 1978MSS...C02....0H.

Radial Velocity: 8.00 ±1.00 km/s [A rating] 2006AstL...32..759G.

Iron Abundance [Fe/H]: n/a

Photometry
 

band	magnitude	Abs. Mag.
U	2.15	-3.19
B	2.92	-2.42
V	3.13	-2.21
R
I	3.31	-2.03
J	3.42	-1.92
H	3.36	-1.98
K	3.38	-1.96

B-V: -0.21 V-I: -0.18

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 116.94 pc (6.3% margin of error)

Galactocentric distance: 7,306 pc

Transverse velocity: 18.0 km/s

3D heliocentric position and motion:

toward:	Galactic center	Galactic rotation	North Galactic Pole
Position ( X, Y, Z)	94.7 pc	-61.8 pc	29.8 pc
Velocity (U, V, W)	-1.2 km/s	-19.2 km/s	-4.5 km/s