Beta Pyxidis

Beta Pyxidis (Beta Pyx, β Pyxidis, β Pyx) is a double star located in the southern constellation Pyxis. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.954, making it the second brightest star in that faint constellation.

Based upon parallax measurements, the star is an estimated 420 light-years (128 parsecs) from the Earth. The spectrum matches a bright giant or supergiant star of stellar classification G7Ib-II. The interferometer-measured angular diameter of this star is 2.05 ± 0.14 mas. At its estimated distance, this yields a physical size of about 28 times the radius of the Sun. The effective temperature of the star's outer envelope is about 5,400 K, giving it the characteristic yellow hue of a G-type star.

In 2010, the star was among a survey of massive, lower effective temperature supergiants in an attempt to detect a magnetic field. This star may have a longitudinal magnetic field with a strength of less than a Gauss. It is a young disk star system with space velocity components, [U, V, W] = [–11.0, +11.8, –2.2] km/s. There is a magnitude 12.5 optical companion, located at an angular separation of 12.7 arcseconds and a position angle of 118° as of the year 1943.