14 Aurigae
Quadruple star system in the constellation Auriga
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14 Aurigae is a quadruple star system located 272[1] light years away from the Sun in the zodiac constellation of Auriga. It has the variable star designation KW Aurigae, whereas 14 Aurigae is the Flamsteed designation.[8] It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, white-hued star with a combined apparent visual magnitude of 5.01.[2] The system is moving closer to the Sun with a heliocentric radial velocity of −9 km/s.[2]
  | |
| Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox ICRS | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Auriga |
| Right ascension | 05h 15m 24.39420s[1] |
| Declination | +32° 41′ 15.3597″[1] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 5.01[2] (5.08 + 7.86)[3] |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | A9IV + ? + F5V + M3V: + WDA[3] |
| U−B color index | +0.19[4] |
| B−V color index | +0.222±0.004[2] |
| Variable type | δ Scuti[5] |
| Astrometry | |
| Radial velocity (Rv) | −9.3±0.2[2] km/s |
| Proper motion (μ) | RA: −25.256±0.121[1] mas/yr Dec.: +12.339±0.087[1] mas/yr |
| Parallax (π) | 12.0126±0.1151 mas[1] |
| Distance | 272 ± 3 ly (83.2 ± 0.8 pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | 0.31[2] |
| Details | |
| 14 Aur Aa | |
| Mass | 1.64[6] M☉ |
| Luminosity | 62.07[2] L☉ |
| Surface gravity (log g) | 3.46[7] cgs |
| Temperature | 7,498[7] K |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | −0.02[2] dex |
| Rotation | 2.11 h[5] |
| Rotational velocity (v sin i) | 27.6[7] km/s |
| Age | 609[6] Myr |
| Other designations | |
| 14 Aur, KW Aurigae, AG+32°492, BD+32°922, GC 6411, HD 33959, HIP 24504, HR 1706, SAO 57799, ADS 3824, CCDM J05154+3242, TYC 2394-2028-1, GCRV 3112, GSC 02394-02028[8] | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
The magnitude 5.08[3] primary member, designated component A, is a single-lined spectroscopic binary system in a circular orbit with a period of 3.7887 days.[10] The visible member has a stellar classification of A9 IV or A V, depending on the source.[11] In 1966, Ivan John Danziger and Robert John Dickens discovered that 14 Aurigae star is a variable star.[12] It is a Delta Scuti variable with an amplitude of 0.08 magnitude and a period of 2.11 hours.[5] It is 609 million years old with 1.64 times the mass of the Sun.[6]
Component B lies about 10″ to the north of the primary and is merely a visual companion. However, component C, an F-type main sequence star of magnitude 7.86,[3] shares a common proper motion with component A and thus they form a system. This member is also a single-lined spectroscopic binary, having a period of 2.9934 days. The final member of the system, now designated component Cb, is a white dwarf star that is separated from the C, or rather Ca pair by 2″. While it is statistically unlikely that a chance alignment between Cb and the rest of the system would occur, it has not been proven whether Cb is a physical companion of Ca. If Cb is indeed bound to Ca, which would make 14 Aurigae a quintuple system, its orbital period is around 1,300 years.[11]