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 alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

given to an optical double star 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 first constellati ...

Puppis Puppis ("poop deck, stern") is a constellation in the southern sky. It was originally part of the Former constellations, traditional constellation of Argo Navis (the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which was divided into three parts, the other ...

, 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 ; , ''káppa'') is the tenth 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 of 20. It was d ...

" (κ). In Bayer's original

Uranometria is a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. It was published in Augsburg in 1603 by Christoph Mang (''Christophorus Mangus'') under the full title (from Latin: ''Uranometria, containing charts of all the constellations, drawn by a new method an ...

, k Puppis was listed as ρ (rho) Navis. When Lacaille broke apart the large constellation

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of Ptolemy's 48 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 BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

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

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...

, 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 (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

. The component k¹ Puppis is a

binary star A binary star or binary star system 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 as separate stars us ...

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 systematically with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are ...

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

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astro ...

from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. k Puppis is listed in the

General Catalogue of Variable Stars The General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) is a list of variable stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Its first edition, containing 10,820 stars, was published in 1948 by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, edited by and Pavel Parenago. Second a ...

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 Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...

. 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 Iron, Fe (Chromium, Cr, Manganese, Mn, Fe, Cobalt, Co and Nickel, Ni) on the graph of the abundances of the chemical elements. For elements lighter than iron on the periodic table, nuclear fusio ...

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