Star profile
Kappa Centauri
Hot blue starWhat is Kappa Centauri
Kappa Centauri belongs to the Upper Centaurus-Lupus association, a sisterhood of young stars born together from the same gas only 17 million years ago. A blue subgiant seven times the Sun's mass, it drifts in quiet formation with its siblings through the nearest patch of sky still rich in massive stars. Its light has been travelling 383 years to reach us.
Where it is and when to see it
Kappa Centauri lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May: 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 Kappa Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.13
- Distance
- 383.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 224.790° · Dec -42.104°
- Catalogue
- HIP 73334 · HD 132200
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Centaurus
Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Rigil KentaurusAlpha 1 Centauri-0.01
- HadarBeta Centauri0.61
- TolimanAlpha 2 Centauri1.35
- Delta Centauri2.58
- Iota Centauri2.75
- Lambda Centauri3.11
- Nu Centauri3.41
- Mu Centauri3.47