Star profile
Nu Puppis
Hot blue starWhat is Nu Puppis
Nu Puppis is a blue giant of the Stern, seen edge-on: it spins so fast —225 km per second at the equator— that it has flattened into an oblique disc and dragged a faint ring of hot gas around itself. Quasi-emission peaks in its spectral lines mark the signature of a Be shell star viewed in profile. At nearly 372 light-years, it shines with the light of some 1,300 suns from a surface at 12,000 K.
Where it is and when to see it
Nu Puppis lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is January: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Nu Puppis
- Constellation
- Puppis
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.17
- Distance
- 371.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 99.440° · Dec -43.196°
- Catalogue
- HIP 31685 · HD 47670
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Puppis
Puppis has 145 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- NaosZeta Puppis2.21
- Pi Puppis2.71
- TureisRho Puppis2.83
- Tau Puppis2.94
- Sigma Puppis3.25
- AzmidiXi Puppis3.34
- HIP 378193.62
- HIP 384143.71