HD 102964

This article is about B Centauri. For b Centauri, see HD 129116. For β Centauri, see Beta Centauri.

HD 102964, also known as B Centauri, is a single^[6] star in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It has the identifier HD 102964 in the Henry Draper catalogue; B Centauri is the star's Bayer designation.^[5] This object has an orange hue and is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +4.47.^[2] The star is located at a distance of approximately 440 light years from the Sun based on parallax,^[1] and has an absolute magnitude of −1.14.^[2]

B Centauri

Location of B Centauri (circled)
Observation data Epoch J2000.0      Equinox J2000.0
Constellation	Centaurus
Right ascension	11h 51m 08.69149s[1]
Declination	−45° 10′ 24.4890″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	+4.47[2]
Characteristics
Spectral type	K3III[3]
B−V color index	+1.283±0.052[2]
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)	+2.2±2.7[2] km/s
Proper motion (μ)	RA: -73.088[1] mas/yr Dec.: -8.170[1] mas/yr
Parallax (π)	7.4043 ± 0.1863 mas[1]
Distance	440 ± 10 ly (135 ± 3 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)	−1.14[2]
Details
Mass	1.16[4] M☉
Radius	39.02+1.20 −5.37[1] R☉
Luminosity	480.1±13.8[1] L☉
Surface gravity (log g)	1.32[4] cgs
Temperature	4,325+251 −65[1] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]	−0.03[4] dex
Other designations
B Cen, CD−44°7614, FK5 446, GC 16226, HD 102964, HIP 57803, HR 4546, SAO 223062[5]
Database references
SIMBAD	data

This object is an aging giant star with a stellar classification of K3III,^[3] indicating the star has exhausted the supply of hydrogen at its core then cooled and expanded off the main sequence. At present it has 39 times the girth of the Sun. It is radiating 480 times the luminosity of the Sun from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,325 K.^[1]

References

1. Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
2. Anderson, E.; Francis, Ch. (2012), "XHIP: An extended hipparcos compilation", Astronomy Letters, 38 (5): 331, arXiv:1108.4971, Bibcode:2012AstL...38..331A, doi:10.1134/S1063773712050015, S2CID 119257644.
3. Houk, Nancy (1978), Michigan catalogue of two-dimensional spectral types for the HD stars, vol. 2, Ann Arbor: Dept. of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Bibcode:1978mcts.book.....H.
4. Anders, F.; Khalatyan, A.; Chiappini, C.; Queiroz, A. B.; Santiago, B. X.; Jordi, C.; Girardi, L.; Brown, A. G. A.; Matijevič, G.; Monari, G.; Cantat-Gaudin, T.; Weiler, M.; Khan, S.; Miglio, A.; Carrillo, I.; Romero-Gómez, M.; Minchev, I.; De Jong, R. S.; Antoja, T.; Ramos, P.; Steinmetz, M.; Enke, H. (2019). "Photo-astrometric distances, extinctions, and astrophysical parameters for Gaia DR2 stars brighter than G = 18". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 628: A94. arXiv:1904.11302. Bibcode:2019A&A...628A..94A. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201935765. S2CID 131780028.
5. "B Cen". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
6. Eggleton, P. P.; Tokovinin, A. A. (September 2008), "A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 389 (2): 869–879, arXiv:0806.2878, Bibcode:2008MNRAS.389..869E, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13596.x, S2CID 14878976.