Kap

Hot blue star

Its story

Kappa Mensae shines in the Table Mountain, the southernmost constellation in the sky, created by Lacaille in homage to the mountain that dominates Cape Town. It is a hot blue B-type star 285 light-years away, young and bright, visible only from the southern hemisphere. Curiously, the Large Magellanic Cloud, that satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, drapes itself over the outline of Mensa, as if the earthly mountain were supporting a cosmic tablecloth of extragalactic stars.

Constellation: Mensa
Apparent magnitude: 5.46
Distance: 285.1 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 87.570° · Dec -79.361°
Catalogue: HIP 27566 · HD 40953

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