Kapteyn's Star [SEP] constellation
Kapteyn's Star
Kapteyn's Star is a class M1 red subdwarf about 12.76 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor; it is the closest halo star to the Solar System. With a magnitude of nearly 9 it is visible through binoculars or a telescope.
Its diameter is 30% of the Sun's, but its luminosity just 1.2% that of the Sun. It may have once been part of the globular cluster Omega Centauri, itself a likely dwarf galaxy swallowed up by the Milky Way in the distant
, Kapteyn's Star and recently Tabby's Star.
In July 2014 the IAU launched a process for giving proper names to exoplanets and their host stars. As a result, the IAU approved the names Cervantes for Mu Arae and Copernicus for 55 Cancri A.
Catalogue designations.
In the absence of any better means of designating a star, catalogue designations are generally used. Many star catalogues are used for this purpose; see star catalogues.
Catalogue designations By constellation.
The first modern schemes for designating stars systematically labelled