Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 7, 2026

16 Camelopardalis

16 Camelopardalis is a single star in the northern circumpolar constellation Camelopardalis, located 348 light years away from the Sun as determined from parallax measurements. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, white-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.28. This object is moving further from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of around 12 km/s.

Last revised
Jul 7, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
580 w
Citations
33
Source
16 Camelopardalis
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox ICRS
Constellation Camelopardalis
Right ascension 05h 23m 27.84195s1
Declination +57° 32′ 39.8364″1
Apparent magnitude (V) 5.282
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage main sequence3
Spectral type A0Vn4
U−B color index −0.072
B−V color index −0.032
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)12.0±3.75 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: +15.3961 mas/yr
Dec.: −54.4471 mas/yr
Parallax (π)9.3655±0.1506 mas1
Distance348 ± 6 ly
(107 ± 2 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)0.186
Details
Mass2.80±0.043 M
Radius3.267 R
Luminosity96.6+7.2
−6.6
3 L
Temperature9,748+92
−87
3 K
Rotational velocity (v sin i)2178 km/s
Age4007 Myr
Other designations
16 Cam, BD+57°879, FK5 2402, HD 34787, HIP 25197, HR 1751, SAO 25161, WDS J05235+5733A9
Database references
SIMBADdata

16 Camelopardalis is a single10 star in the northern circumpolar constellation Camelopardalis,9 located 348 light years away from the Sun as determined from parallax measurements.1 It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, white-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.28.2 This object is moving further from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of around 12 km/s.5

This is an A-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of A0 Vn,4 where the 'n' notation indicates "nebulous" lines due to rapid rotation. In the past it was misidentified as a Lambda Boötis star.11 It is around 4007 million years old and is spinning with a projected rotational velocity of 217 km/s.8 The star has 2.83 times the mass of the Sun and 3.37 times the Sun's radius. It is radiating 973 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 9,748 K.3

An infrared excess indicates it has a dusty debris disk with a mean temperature of 120 K orbiting at a distance of 52 AU from the star. This disk has a combined mass equal to 2.1% the mass of the Earth.7

References

References

  1. Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
  2. Oja, T. (April 1983), "UBV photometry of FK4 and FK4 supplement stars", Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 52: 131–134, Bibcode:1983A&AS...52..131O
  3. Zorec, J.; Royer, F. (2012), "Rotational velocities of A-type stars. IV. Evolution of rotational velocities", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 537: A120, arXiv:1201.2052, Bibcode:2012A&A...537A.120Z, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117691, S2CID 55586789.
  4. Cowley, A.; et al. (April 1969), "A study of the bright A stars. I. A catalogue of spectral classifications", Astronomical Journal, 74: 375–406, Bibcode:1969AJ.....74..375C, doi:10.1086/110819
  5. Kharchenko, N. V.; et al. (2007), "Astrophysical supplements to the ASCC-2.5: Ia. Radial velocities of ˜55000 stars and mean radial velocities of 516 Galactic open clusters and associations", Astronomische Nachrichten, 328 (9): 889–896, arXiv:0705.0878, Bibcode:2007AN....328..889K, doi:10.1002/asna.200710776, S2CID 119323941
  6. Huang, W.; et al. (2012), "A catalogue of Paschen-line profiles in standard stars", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 547: A62, arXiv:1210.7893, Bibcode:2012A&A...547A..62H, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201219804, S2CID 119286159.
  7. Rhee, Joseph H.; et al. (May 2007), "Characterization of Dusty Debris Disks: The IRAS and Hipparcos Catalogs", The Astrophysical Journal, 660 (2): 1556–1571, arXiv:astro-ph/0609555, Bibcode:2007ApJ...660.1556R, doi:10.1086/509912, S2CID 11879505
  8. Royer, F.; Zorec, J.; Gómez, A. E. (February 2007), "Rotational velocities of A-type stars. III. Velocity distributions", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 463 (2): 671–682, arXiv:astro-ph/0610785, Bibcode:2007A&A...463..671R, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20065224, S2CID 18475298
  9. "16 Cam". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
  10. Eggleton, P. P.; Tokovinin, A. A. (September 2008), "A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 389 (2): 869–879, arXiv:0806.2878, Bibcode:2008MNRAS.389..869E, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13596.x, S2CID 14878976.
  11. Gerbaldi, M.; Faraggiana, R.; Lai, O. (December 2003), "The heterogeneous class of lambda Bootis stars", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 412 (2): 447–464, Bibcode:2003A&A...412..447G, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031472.
External links