Kappa Librae, a red giant star in Libra
Kappa Librae is a red giant star in the constellation Libra. At 303 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.72.
Kappa Librae (HIP 76880)
Kappa Librae is a red giant star in the constellation Libra. At 303 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.72. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 51.7 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 15h 41.9m, Dec -19° 40.7'
Common designations: Kappa Librae, 43 Librae, HR 5838, HD 139997, HIP 76880, Gaia DR3 6253982698111471104
Kappa Librae has the spectral type M0-IIIb. M-type stars are cool red stars below about 3,900 K whose spectra are dominated by titanium oxide molecular bands. Red dwarfs, red giants and red supergiants all fall in this class. 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 Kappa Librae in the sky
Kappa Librae lies in Libra. With a declination of -19° 40.7', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 70° N. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around June, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Kappa Librae
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 235.48663508° (15h 41.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -19.67879300° (-19° 40.7') |
| Galactic Longitude | 348.94051066° |
| Galactic Latitude | 27.58316616° |
| Proper motion RA | -35.26 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -111.52 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 10.77 ± 0.42 mas |
| Spectral Type | M0-IIIb |
| Radial Velocity | -4.50 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 8.24 | 3.40 |
| B | 6.30 | 1.46 |
| V | 4.72 | -0.12 |
| R | 3.44 | -1.40 |
| I | 2.50 | -2.34 |
| J | 1.74 | -3.10 |
| H | 1.02 | -3.82 |
| K | 0.71 | -4.13 |
Colour index B-V: +1.58
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 92.83 pc (303 light years) (3.9% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.12
- Transverse velocity: 51.5 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 51.7 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 80.7 pc, -15.8 pc, 43.0 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -0.9 km/s, -45.4 km/s, -24.6 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.