Kappa Volantis, Latinized from κ Volantis, is a quadruple star system in the southern constellation of

Volans Volans is a constellation in the southern sky. It represents a flying fish; its name is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans. Volans was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirk ...

. The primary component has an

apparent visual 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 lig ...

of 5.37, while the secondary companion is magnitude 5.65; individually, both a bright enough to be faintly visible to the naked eye. Based upon parallax measurements, the stars appear to be around 420−430 light-years 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 ...

Properties

The brightest component, κ¹ Volantis, is a blue-white

B-type 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 star ...

with a stellar classification showing characteristics of a both a

subgiant 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 ...

and

giant star A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moore, New York: Oxford University Press ...

. It has an unseen companion, and the pair form a single-lined spectroscopic binary. The star has nearly three times the

Sun's mass The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass of ...

, and 3.8 times its radius. It radiates at 129 times the

Sun's luminosity The solar luminosity (), is a unit of radiant flux (power emitted in the form of photons) conventionally used by astronomers to measure the luminosity of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects in terms of the output of the Sun. One nominal ...

from its photosphere at an effective temperature of .

Companion

Separated from κ¹ Volantis by 65

arcseconds A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The ...

, κ² Volantis is a white subgiant star that falls between a B-type and A-type classification. The system's fourth component, κ Volantis C, is a magnitude +8.5 star 37.7 arcseconds away from κ² Volantis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kappa Volantis B-type giants A-type subgiants 4 Volans Volantis, Kappa Durchmusterung objects 040817 071046 3301