Kappa Pyxidis (HIP 44824)

Kappa Pyxidis is an orange giant star in the constellation Pyxis. At 554 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.62. Kappa Pyxidis is a multiple-star system. The iron abundance of Kappa Pyxidis is -0.2 (63.1% of the Sun). It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 53.7 km/s relative to the Sun. It will come closest to the Sun 2.6 million years from now when it will brighten to magnitude 3.34 from a distance of 308 light years.

Sky position: RA 9h 8.0m, Dec -25° 51.6'

Common designations: Kappa Pyxidis, HIP 44824, HD 78541

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Brightest stars in Pyxis:
(list all)

1

|    3.68

)   Alpha Pyxidis

2

|    3.97

)   Beta Pyxidis

3

|    4.02

)   Gamma Pyxidis

4

|    4.62

)   Kappa Pyxidis

5

|    4.71

)   Theta Pyxidis

6

|    4.71

)   Lambda Pyxidis

7

|    4.86

)   Zeta Pyxidis

8

|    4.87

)   Delta Pyxidis

9

|    5.05

)   HD 73752

10

|    5.19

)   HR 3512

11

|    5.24

)   Eta Pyxidis

12

|    5.42

)   HD 72310

13

|    5.59

)   Epsilon Pyxidis

14

|    5.61

)   HR 3362

15

|    5.74

)   HR 3479

16

|    5.75

)   HD 71801

17

|    5.86

)   HR 3513

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

Galactic Orbit of Kappa Pyxidis
(compared to the Sun)

Eccentricity: 67.8% vs. 16.0%

Angle φ : 28.1° vs. 26.0°

Semi-major axis : 22,010 pc vs. 8,686 pc

Semi-minor axis: 16,188 pc vs. 8,574 pc

Focus-to-center: 14,913 pc vs. 1,388 pc

Semilatus rectum : 11,906 pc vs. 8,464 pc

Perigalacticon: 7,097 pc vs. 7,297 pc

Apogalacticon: 36,922 pc vs. 10,074 pc
 
Some Tabulated XHIP Data for Kappa Pyxidis
(see also: SIMBAD)

Astrometry
 2007A&A...474..653V
  Position Proper Motion
Right Ascension: 137.01190557° ±0.37 mas 37.00 ±0.70 mas/yr.
Declination: -25.85853692° ±0.28 mas -1.10 ±0.80 mas/yr.
     
Galactic Longitude: 252.64438849° 24.85 mas/yr.
Galactic Latitude: 14.52081770° 27.44 mas/yr.

Parallax: 5.82 ± 0.55 mas

Spectrography

Spectral Type: K4III 1989ApJS...71..245K.

Radial Velocity: -44.70 ±2.80 km/s [A rating] 2006AstL...32..759G.

Iron Abundance [Fe/H]: -0.20 dex  1990ApJS...74.1075M.
 


Photometry
 
band magnitude Abs. Mag.
U
B 6.21 0.06
V 4.62 -1.53
R
I 3.13 -3.02
J 1.89 -4.26
H 1.06 -5.10
K 0.92 -5.23

  B-V: +1.59       V-I: +1.49

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 170.00 pc (9.5% margin of error)

Galactocentric distance: 7,451 pc

Transverse velocity: 29.8 km/s

3D heliocentric position and motion:

toward:   

Galactic center Galactic rotation North Galactic Pole
Position ( X, Y, Z) -49.1 pc -157.1 pc 42.6 pc
Velocity (U, V, W) 33.7 km/s 40.6 km/s 10.2 km/s

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