Magnitude 4.37 | Constellation Columba | |
Similar ESO 306‑17, Mu Columbae, NGC 1792 | ||
Kappa Columbae is a solitary star in the southern constellation of Columba. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.37, which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 17.87 mas, it is located at a distance of 183 light years from the Sun. It has a peculiar velocity of 7004202000000000000♠20.2±1.9 km/s, making it a candidate runaway star.
For ancient Arabian astronomers, this star, along with ζ CMa, λ CMa, γ Col, δ Col, θ Col, λ Col, μ Col and ξ Col, formed Al Ḳurūd (ألقرد - al-qird), the Apes. In Chinese, 孫 (Sūn), meaning Grandson, refers to an asterism consisting of κ Columbae and θ Columbae. Consequently, κ Columbae itself is known as 孫一 (Sūn yī, English: the First Star of Grandson.).
This is an evolved K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K0.5 IIIa. The measured angular diameter of this star, after correction for limb darkening, is 7000175000000000000♠1.75±0.03 mas. At the estimated distance of this star, this yields a physical size of about 10.5 times the radius of the Sun. It has an estimated 1.76 times the mass of the Sun and is about 1.7 billion years old. The star radiates 57.5 times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 4,876 K. It is catalogued as a suspected variable star.