Kappa Columbae is a solitary star in the southern constellation of Columba. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from κ Columbae, and abbreviated Kappa Col or κ Col. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.37, which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Based upon an annual parallax shift of , it is located at a distance of from the Sun. It has a peculiar velocity of , making it a candidate runaway star.
This is an evolved K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K0.5 IIIa. At the age of 622 million years, it has 2.50 times the mass of the Sun and has expanded to 10.7 times the Sun's radius.The star radiates 60.7 times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 4,937 K. It is catalogued as a suspected variable star.
In Chinese, (), meaning Grandson, refers to an asterism consisting of κ Columbae and θ Columbae. 中國星座神話, written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, . Consequently, κ Columbae itself is known as (, ). AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 16 日
References