k Puppis (k Pup, k Puppis) is a

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...

given to an

optical double star In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Puppis Puppis is a constellation in the southern sky. Puppis, the Latin translation of "poop deck", was originally part of an over-large constellation Argo Navis (the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which centuries after its initial description, was ...

, the two components being k¹ Puppis and k² Puppis.

Bayer designation

Note that the Bayer designation for this star is "k" not "

kappa Kappa (uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; el, κάππα, ''káppa'') is the 10th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value o ...

" (κ). In Bayer's original

Uranometria ''Uranometria'' is a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. It was published in Augsburg in 1603 by Christoph Mangle (''Christophorus Mangus'') under the full title ''Uranometria: omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, ae ...

, k Puppis was listed as ρ (rho) Navis. When

Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good ...

broke apart the large constellation

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of the 48 Ptolemy's constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...

into

Carina Carina may refer to: Places Australia * Carina, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina Heights, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina, Victoria, a locality in Mildura Serbia * Carina, Osečina, a village in the Kolubara District ...

, Puppis, and Vela, he re-designated the stars with

Greek letter The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

s in a single sequence across all three constellations. Additionally, Lacaille used

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

letters for many additional stars. κ (kappa) is in the constellation of Vela and so there is no kappa in Puppis. The confusion also extends to the proper name Markab which properly applies to κ Velorum (and other stars) but which has also been used for k Puppis when it is called κ Puppis.

Description

Both k¹ Puppis and k² Puppis are bright blue B-type stars of nearly equal brightness, +4.50 and +4.62, respectively. To the naked eye, the pair has a combined magnitude of +3.80. On the sky, the two stars are separated by approximately 9.9 seconds of arc along PA 318°. The optical pair can be distinguished easily with a small

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

. The component k¹ Puppis is a

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

system in its own right, while k² Puppis is a

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

. Each star within the k Puppis optical pair is between 450 and 470

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. k Puppis is listed in the

General Catalogue of Variable Stars The General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) is a list of variable stars. Its first edition, containing 10,820 stars, was published in 1948 by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and edited by B. V. Kukarkin and P. P. Parenago. Second and thi ...

as a suspected variable star, but the range and type are not stated. The ''International Bulletin of Variable Stars'' has since published research showing that k² Puppis is the variable component. It is an SX Arietis variable with a period of 1.9093 days which is also the rotational period of the star. The total amplitude is 0.015

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

. k² Puppis is a

chemically peculiar star In astrophysics, chemically peculiar stars (CP stars) are stars with distinctly unusual Metallicity, metal abundances, at least in their surface layers. Classification Chemically peculiar stars are common among hot main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) ...

with a strong magnetic field. It is classified as a He-weak star and in addition to a deficit of helium in its spectrum, it shows an overabundance of many

iron peak The iron peak is a local maximum in the vicinity of Fe ( Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni) on the graph of the abundances of the chemical elements. For elements lighter than iron on the periodic table, nuclear fusion releases energy. For iron, and for ...

and rare earth elements. All of its spectral lines show variability, probably due to variations in the chemical makeup of its atmosphere as it rotates.

References

External links

Puppis
{{Stars of Puppis Puppis, k k Puppis k Puppis k Puppis k1 Puppis B-type main-sequence stars 2948 9 037229 061555 6 Suspected variables Durchmusterung objects SX Arietis variables Helium-weak stars