λ Hydrae, Latinised as Lambda Hydrae, is a spectroscopic binary star in the constellation Hydra. Its apparent magnitude is 3.61 Located around distant. The spiral galaxy NGC 3145 is only away to the southwest. The primary is an

orange giant 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 ...

of spectral type K0IIICN+1, a star that has used up its core

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

, left the main sequence, and expanded into a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

. It is considered to be a

red clump Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

giant, a cool horizontal branch star that is burning helium in its core. λ Hydrae has two visual companions, components B and C, 11th and 13th magnitude stars respectively and away.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambda Hydrae K-type giants Horizontal-branch stars Spectroscopic binaries Hydra (constellation) Hydrae, Lambda Durchmusterung objects Hydrae, 41 088284 049841 3994