Luminosity 11.8 L☉ Constellation Taurus | Magnitude 4.21 Apparent magnitude (V) 4.21 | |
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Kappa Tauri (κ Tau, κ Tauri) is a double star in the constellation Taurus and a member of the Hyades open cluster. The pair are approximately 150 light years from Earth, but are separated by about six light years.
The system is dominated by a visual double star, κ¹ Tauri and κ² Tauri. κ¹ Tauri is a white A-type subgiant with an apparent magnitude of +4.22. It is emitting an excess of infrared radiation at a temperature indicating there is a circumstellar disk in orbit at a radius of 67 AU from the star. κ² Tauri is a white A-type main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of +5.24. Both stars are Delta Scuti variables.
Between the two bright stars is a binary star made up of two 9th magnitude stars, Kappa Tauri C and Kappa Tauri D, which are 5.5 arcseconds from each other (as of 2013) and 175.1 arcseconds from κ¹ Tau. Two more 12th magnitude companions fill out the visual group: Kappa Tauri E, which is 145 arcseconds from κ¹ Tau, and Kappa Tauri F, 108.5 arcseconds away from κ² Tau.
Kappa Tauri was photographed during Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 by the expedition of Arthur Eddington in Príncipe and others in Sobral, Brazil that confirmed Albert Einstein's prediction of the bending of light around the Sun from his general theory of relativity which he published in 1915.