Mu Leporis

Mu Leporis (μ Lep, μ Lep) is a star in the southern constellation of Lepus. The apparent visual magnitude is 3.259, making the star visible to the naked eye at night from the southern hemisphere. Parallax measurements yield an estimated distance of 186 light-years (57 parsecs) from the Earth.

The stellar classification of this star is B9 IV:HgMn, although the ':' indicates an uncertain spectral value. The luminosity class of IV indicates that this is a subgiant that has exhausted the hydrogen at its core and it is in the process of evolving into a giant star. At present it has about 3.4 times the Sun's radius and an effective temperature of 12,800 K in its outer envelope.

Mu Leporis is a suspected Alpha² Canum Venaticorum variable with a period of about two days, although this has not been confirmed. The spectrum of this star shows overabundances of mercury and manganese, as indicated by the HgMn in the stellar class. X-ray emission has been detected coming from a location at an angular separation of 0.93 arcseconds from this star. At the estimated distance of Mu Leporis, this equals a projected distance of 52 Astronomical Units. The source may be a stellar companion: either a star that has not yet reached the main sequence or a small, low-temperature star. The X-ray luminosity of this object is (4.4 ± 0.1) × 10 ²⁹ erg s⁻¹.