Kappa Persei

"Misam" redirects here; not to be confused with Mirzam.

Kappa Persei or κ Persei, is a triple star system in the northern constellation of Perseus. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 28.93 mas,^[1] it is located at a distance of 113 light-years from the Sun.

Kappa Persei

Location of κ Persei (circled)
Observation data Epoch J2000.0      Equinox J2000.0 (ICRS)
Constellation	Perseus
Right ascension	03h 09m 29.77156s[1]
Declination	+44° 51′ 27.1463″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	3.80[2]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage	red clump[3]
Spectral type	G9.5 IIIb[4]
U−B color index	+0.83[2]
B−V color index	+0.98[2]
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)	27.43±0.42[5] km/s
Proper motion (μ)	RA: +172.99[1] mas/yr Dec.: −143.40[1] mas/yr
Parallax (π)	28.93±0.21 mas[1]
Distance	112.7 ± 0.8 ly (34.6 ± 0.3 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)	1.20[6]
Details
Mass	1.50[7] M☉
Radius	9[5] R☉
Luminosity	39.8[7] L☉
Surface gravity (log g)	2.9[5] cgs
Temperature	4,857±69[7] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]	0.04[5] dex
Rotational velocity (v sin i)	3.0[5] km/s
Age	4.58[7] Gyr
Other designations
Misam, Kap Per, κ Per, 27 Persei, BD+44°631, HD 19476, HIP 14668, HR 941, SAO 38609, WDS J03095+4451A[8]
Database references
SIMBAD	data

The system consists of a spectroscopic binary,^[9][6] designated Kappa Persei A, which can be seen with the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of 3.80.^[2] The third star, designated Kappa Persei B, is of magnitude 13.50.^[10]

Kappa Persei A's two components are designated Kappa Persei Aa (officially named Misam /ˈmaɪzəm/, the traditional name of the entire system)^[11] and Ab.

Nomenclature

κ Persei (Latinised to Kappa Persei) is the system's Bayer designation. The designations of the two constituents as Kappa Persei A and B, and those of A's components - Kappa Persei Aa and Ab - derive from the convention used by the Washington Multiplicity Catalog (WMC) for multiple star systems, and adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).^[12]

The traditional name comes from the Arabic مِعْصَم miʽṣam 'wrist'.

In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)^[13] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple systems.^[14] It approved the name Misam for the component Kappa Persei Aa on 5 September 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.^[11]

In Chinese, 大陵 (Dà Líng), meaning Mausoleum, refers to an asterism consisting of Kappa Persei, 9 Persei, Tau Persei, Iota Persei, Beta Persei (Algol), Rho Persei, 16 Persei and 12 Persei. Consequently, the Chinese name for Kappa Persei itself is 大陵四 (Dà Líng sì, English: the Fourth Star of Mausoleum.).^[15]

Properties

At its distance, the visual magnitude of Kappa Persei is diminished by an extinction factor of 0.06 due to interstellar dust.^[6] It has a relatively high proper motion totaling 0.230 arcseconds per year.^[16] There is a 76.3% chance that it is a member of the Hyades-Pleiades stream of stars that share a common motion through space.^[6]

With an estimated age of 4.58 billion years,^[7] Kappa Persei Aa is an evolved G-type giant star with a stellar classification of G9.5 IIIb.^[4] It is a red clump giant, which means that it is generating energy at its core through the nuclear fusion of helium.^[3] The star has about 1.5^[7] times the mass of the Sun and 9^[5] times the Sun's radius. It radiates 40^[7] times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 4,857 K.^[7]

Kappa Persei B is at an angular separation of 44.10 arc seconds along a position angle of 319°, as of 2009.^[10]