Kappa Cancri
Star in the constellation Cancer
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Kappa Cancri is a blue-white hued binary star system in the zodiac constellation of Cancer. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from κ Cancri, and abbreviated Kappa Cnc or κ Cnc. This system is faintly visible to the naked eye as a star with an apparent visual magnitude of +5.23.[3] The magnitude difference between the two stars is about 2.6.[10] Based upon an annual parallax shift of 5.32 mas as seen from the Earth,[2] the system is located approximately 610 light-years distant from the Sun. It is drifting further away with a line of sight velocity of 25 km/s.[6] The position of this system near the ecliptic means it is subject to lunar occultation.[11]
This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary[3] star system with an orbital period of 6.39 days and an eccentricity of 0.13.[7] The primary, component A, has a stellar classification of B8 IIIp,[4] suggesting it is a B-type giant star. This a mercury-manganese star, a type of chemically peculiar star showing large overabundances of those two elements in the outer atmosphere. This indicates that it is instead a main sequence star.[3][10] It is classified as an Alpha2 Canum Venaticorum type variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +5.22 to +5.27 with a period of five days.[5]
The primary component has 4.5 times the mass of the Sun, five times the Sun's radius, and an effective temperature of 13,200 K. The secondary, component B, is a smaller star with 2.1 times the mass and 2.4 times the radius of the Sun, having an effective temperature of 8,500 K.[8]