w Puppis (HIP 40945)

w Puppis is an orange giant star in the constellation Puppis. At 999 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.83. The iron abundance of w Puppis is -0.12 (75.9% of the Sun). It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 37.2 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 19,500 and 24,500 light years from the center of the Galaxy. It came closest to the Sun 7.2 million years ago when it had brightened to magnitude 3.09 from a distance of 449 light years.

Sky position: RA 8h 21.4m, Dec -33° 3'

Common designations: w Puppis, HIP 40945, HD 70555

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Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
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Brightest stars in Puppis:
(list all)

32

|    4.69

)   m Puppis

33

|    4.69

)   Q Puppis

34

|    4.72

)   19 Puppis

35

|    4.73

)   HR 3226

36

|    4.75

)   HR 2762

37

|    4.76

)   chi Puppis

38

|    4.78

)   r Puppis

39

|    4.82

)   HD 60414

40

|    4.83

)   A Puppis

41

|    4.83

)   w Puppis

42

|    4.84

)   d1 Puppis

43

|    4.85

)   HD 59612

44

|    4.87

)   L1 Puppis

45

|    4.92

)   H Puppis

46

|    4.94

)   HR 2608

47

|    4.98

)   140 Puppis

48

|    4.99

)   HR 2549

Location of w Puppis circled
Map detail from Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
Hover over other bright stars to identify or click to jump.

Galactic Orbit of w Puppis
(compared to the Sun)

Eccentricity: 11.2% vs. 16.0%

Angle φ : -178.2° vs. 26.0°

Semi-major axis : 6,747 pc vs. 8,686 pc

Semi-minor axis: 6,705 pc vs. 8,574 pc

Focus-to-center: 753 pc vs. 1,388 pc

Semilatus rectum : 6,663 pc vs. 8,464 pc

Perigalacticon: 5,994 pc vs. 7,297 pc

Apogalacticon: 7,500 pc vs. 10,074 pc
 
Some Tabulated XHIP Data for w Puppis
(see also: SIMBAD)

Astrometry
 2007A&A...474..653V
  Position Proper Motion
Right Ascension: 125.34597661° ±0.15 mas -11.13 ±0.18 mas/yr.
Declination: -33.05437212° ±0.19 mas 2.83 ±0.20 mas/yr.
     
Galactic Longitude: 252.13167306° -8.66 mas/yr.
Galactic Latitude: 2.09689634° -7.55 mas/yr.

Parallax: 3.24 ± 0.25 mas

Spectrography

Spectral Type: K2+ IIIa 1989ApJS...71..245K.

Radial Velocity: 33.20 ±2.80 km/s [A rating] 2006AstL...32..759G.

Iron Abundance [Fe/H]: -0.12 ±0.06 dex  1990ApJS...74.1075M.
 


Photometry
 
band magnitude Abs. Mag.
U
B 6.25 -1.18
V 4.83 -2.60
R
I 3.64 -3.80
J 2.35 -5.09
H 1.70 -5.73
K 1.54 -5.89

  B-V: +1.42       V-I: +1.19

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 306.45 pc (7.7% margin of error)

Galactocentric distance: 7,499 pc

Transverse velocity: 16.7 km/s

3D heliocentric position and motion:

toward:   

Galactic center Galactic rotation North Galactic Pole
Position ( X, Y, Z) -94.0 pc -291.5 pc 11.2 pc
Velocity (U, V, W) -22.3 km/s -28.1 km/s -9.7 km/s

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