Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 22, 2026

Beta Columbae

Beta Columbae is the second-brightest star in the southern constellation of Columba. It has the proper name Wazn ; Beta Columbae is its Bayer designation, which is Latinized from β Columbae, and abbreviated Beta Col or β Col. This star has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.1, which is bright enough to be viewed with the naked eye even from an urban location. Parallax measurements place it at a distance of about 87.2 light-years from the Sun.

Last revised
Jul 22, 2026
Read time
≈ 5 min
Length
1,042 w
Citations
41
Source
Wikipedia ↗
β Columbae
Location of β Columbae (circled)
Observation data
Epoch J2000.0      Equinox J2000.0 (ICRS)
Constellation Columba
Right ascension 05h 50m 57.5929s1
Declination −35° 46′ 05.915″1
Apparent magnitude (V) 3.1052
Characteristics
Spectral type K1 IIICN+13
U−B color index +1.1892
B−V color index +1.1622
R−I color index +0.584
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)+88.95 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: +54.77 mas/yr1
Dec.: 404.20 mas/yr1
Parallax (π)37.41±0.12 mas1
Distance87.2 ± 0.3 ly
(26.73 ± 0.09 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)+1.016
Details
Mass1.10±0.207 M☉
Radius11.58 R☉
Luminosity (bolometric)569 L☉
Surface gravity (log g)2.623 cgs
Temperature4,5453 K
Metallicity [Fe/H]0.113 dex
Age210 Gyr
Other designations
Wazn, β Col, CD−35 2546, CPD−35 752, FK5 223, GC 7364, HD 39425, HIP 27628, HR 2040, SAO 196240, PPM 281952, LTT 2392, NLTT 1572411
Database references
SIMBADdata

Beta Columbae is the second-brightest star in the southern constellation of Columba.10 It has the proper name Wazn /ˈwɒzən/;12 Beta Columbae is its Bayer designation, which is Latinized from β Columbae, and abbreviated Beta Col or β Col. This star has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.1,2 which is bright enough to be viewed with the naked eye even from an urban location. Parallax measurements place it at a distance of about 87.2 light-years (26.7 parsecs) from the Sun.1

Nomenclature

Beta Columbae is the star's Bayer designation. It has the traditional name Wazn (or Wezn) from the Arabic وزن "weight".410 In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)13 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 201614 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Wazn for this star.

In Chinese, 子 (Zǐ), meaning Son, refers to an asterism consisting of Beta Columbae and Lambda Columbae.15 Consequently, Beta Columbae itself is known as 子二 (Zǐ èr, English: the Second Star of Son.)16

Properties

The spectrum of Beta Columbae matches a stellar classification of K1 IIICN+1,11 where the 'III' luminosity class indicates this is a giant star that has exhausted the supply of hydrogen at its core and evolved away from the main sequence of stars like the Sun. The notation 'CN+1' indicates a higher than normal level of cyanogen (CN) absorption in the atmosphere of the star.17

The interferometry-measured angular diameter of this star, after correcting for limb darkening, is 3.99±0.05 mas,18 which, at its estimated distance, equates to a physical radius of about 11.5 times the radius of the Sun.8 Despite having expanded to this radius, Beta Columbae only has about a 10% greater mass than the Sun.7 The outer envelope of this star is radiating energy at an effective temperature of 4,545 K,3 resulting an orange19 hue that is typical of a cool, K-type star.20

Beta Columbae has a high proper motion across the celestial sphere21 and is moving at an unusually large speed of 100 km s−1 relative to the Sun.10 About 107,200 years ago, it made a close approach to the Beta Pictoris system. The estimated separation of the two stars at this time was around 1.9 ly (0.58 pc) and Beta Columbae may have perturbed outlying planetesimals within the debris disk surrounding Beta Pictoris.21

References

References

  1. van Leeuwen, F. (November 2007), "Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 474 (2): 653–664, arXiv:0708.1752, Bibcode:2007A&A...474..653V, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078357, S2CID 18759600
  2. Gutierrez-Moreno, Adelina; et al. (1966), "A System of photometric standards", Publications of the Department of Astronomy University of Chile, 1, Publicaciones Universidad de Chile, Department de Astronomy: 1–17, Bibcode:1966PDAUC...1....1G
  3. Gray, R. O.; et al. (July 2006), "Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: spectroscopy of stars earlier than M0 within 40 pc-The Southern Sample", The Astronomical Journal, 132 (1): 161–170, arXiv:astro-ph/0603770, Bibcode:2006AJ....132..161G, doi:10.1086/504637, S2CID 119476992
  4. HR 2040, database entry, The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Preliminary Version), D. Hoffleit and W. H. Warren, Jr., CDS ID V/50. Accessed on line September 5, 2008.
  5. Wielen, R.; et al. (1999), "Sixth Catalogue of Fundamental Stars (FK6). Part I. Basic fundamental stars with direct solutions", Veroeffentlichungen des Astronomischen Rechen-Instituts Heidelberg, 35, Veröffentlichungen des Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg: 1, Bibcode:1999VeARI..35....1W
  6. Cardini, D. (January 2005), "Mg II chromospheric radiative loss rates in cool active and quiet stars", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 430: 303–311, arXiv:astro-ph/0409683, Bibcode:2005A&A...430..303C, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20041440, S2CID 12136256.
  7. Stello, D.; et al. (2008), "Oscillating K Giants with the WIRE Satellite: Determination of Their Asteroseismic Masses", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 674 (1): L53–L56, arXiv:0801.2155, Bibcode:2008ApJ...674L..53S, doi:10.1086/528936, S2CID 15094067
  8. Lang, Kenneth R. (2006), Astrophysical formulae, Astronomy and astrophysics library, vol. 1 (3rd ed.), Birkhäuser, ISBN 3-540-29692-1. The radius (R*) is given by:
    2 ⋅ R ∗ = ( 10 − 3 ⋅ ( 26.73 ⋅ 3.99 )   AU 0.0046491   AU / R ⨀ ≈ 22.9 ⋅ R ⨀ {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}2\cdot R_{*}&={\frac {(10^{-3}\cdot (26.73\cdot 3.99)\ {\text{AU}}}{0.0046491\ {\text{AU}}/R_{\bigodot }}}\\&\approx 22.9\cdot R_{\bigodot }\end{aligned}}}
  9. Mallik, Sushma V. (December 1999), "Lithium abundance and mass", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 352: 495–507, Bibcode:1999A&A...352..495M
  10. Kaler, James B., "Wazn", Stars, University of Illinois, retrieved 2012-01-04
  11. "bet Col", SIMBAD, Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg, retrieved 2026-05-19.
  12. Mamajek, Eric, IAU Catalog of Star Names, University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, retrieved 28 July 2016.
  13. IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN), International Astronomical Union, archived from the original on 10 June 2016, retrieved 22 May 2016.
  14. Mamajek, Eric, Bulletin of the IAU Working Group on Star Names, No. 1 (PDF), University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, retrieved 28 July 2016.
  15. (in Chinese) 中國星座神話, written by 陳久金. Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, ISBN 978-986-7332-25-7.
  16. (in Chinese) 香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表 Archived 2010-08-19 at the Wayback Machine, Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.
  17. Keenan, Philip C.; et al. (July 1987), "Recognition and classification of strong-CN giants", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 99: 629–636, Bibcode:1987PASP...99..629K, doi:10.1086/132025
  18. Richichi, A.; et al. (February 2005), "CHARM2: An updated Catalog of High Angular Resolution Measurements", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 431 (2): 773–777, Bibcode:2005A&A...431..773R, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20042039
  19. Kambic, Bojan (2009), Viewing the Constellations with Binoculars: 250+ Wonderful Sky Objects to See and Explore, The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series, Springer Science & Business Media, p. 260, ISBN 978-0387853550.
  20. "The Colour of Stars", Australia Telescope, Outreach and Education, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, December 21, 2004, archived from the original on 2012-03-18, retrieved 2012-01-16
  21. Kalas, Paul; et al. (May 2001), "Stellar Encounters with the β Pictoris Planetesimal System", The Astrophysical Journal, 553 (1): 410–420, arXiv:astro-ph/0101364, Bibcode:2001ApJ...553..410K, doi:10.1086/320632, S2CID 10844800