Kappa Canis Majoris, Latinized from κ Canis Majoris, is a solitary, blue-white hued

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

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 ...

Canis Major Canis Major is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin fo ...

. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.87. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 7.70

mas Mas, Más or MAS may refer to: Film and TV * Más y Menos, fictional superhero characters, from the Teen Titans animated television series * Más (Breaking Bad), "Más" (''Breaking Bad''), a season three episode of ''Breaking Bad'' Songs * Más ( ...

as seen from Earth, this star is located about 660

light year 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 ...

s from the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

This is a

B-type main-sequence star A B-type main-sequence star (B V) is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type B and luminosity class V. These stars have from 2 to 16 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 10,000 and 30,000 K. B-type stars ...

with a

stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

of B1.5 Ve, although Hiltner et al. (1969) classified it as B1.5 IVe suggesting it is a

subgiant star A subgiant is a star that is brighter than a normal main-sequence star of the same spectral class, but not as bright as giant stars. The term subgiant is applied both to a particular spectral luminosity class and to a stage in the evolution of ...

. The 'e' suffix indicates it is a rapidly rotating

Be star Be stars are a heterogeneous set of stars with B spectral types and emission lines. A narrower definition, sometimes referred to as ''classical Be stars'', is a non-supergiant B star whose spectrum has, or had at some time, one or more Balmer e ...

with a circumstellar

decretion disk Be stars are a heterogeneous set of stars with B spectral types and emission lines. A narrower definition, sometimes referred to as ''classical Be stars'', is a non-supergiant B star whose spectrum has, or had at some time, one or more Balmer e ...

of heated gas. The radius of the emitting disk is about , or about 3.7 times the radius of the star. It is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae type

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 ...

and its brightness varies from magnitude +3.4 to +3.97. The star became 50% brighter between 1963 and 1978, increasing from magnitude 3.96 or so to 3.52.

Naming

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, (), meaning ''

Bow and Arrow The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles ( arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was comm ...

'', refers to an asterism consisting of κ Canis Majoris, δ Canis Majoris, η Canis Majoris,

HD 63032 c Puppis, also known as HD 63032 and HR 3017, is a spectroscopic binary star in the constellation Puppis. Its apparent magnitude is 3.61. Located around distant, the primary is an orange-red bright giant or supergiant of spectral type K2. ...

HD 65456 χ Puppis, Latinised as Chi Puppis, is a single star in the southern constellation of Puppis. It has a white hue and is faintly visible to the eye at night with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.79. The star is located at a distance of a ...

, ο Puppis,

k Puppis k Puppis (k Pup, k Puppis) is a Bayer designation given to an optical double star in the constellation Puppis, the two components being k1 Puppis and k2 Puppis. Bayer designation Note that the Bayer designation for this star is "k" n ...

, ε Canis Majoris and π Puppis. Consequently, κ Canis Majoris itself is known as (, en, the Eighth Star of Bow and Arrow.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kappa Canis Majoris B-type main-sequence stars Gamma Cassiopeiae variable stars Canis Majoris, Kappa Canis Major Durchmusterung objects Canis Majoris, 13 050013 032759 2538