Kapteyn's Star

Kapteyn's Star

system

Kapteyn's Star is a nearby red subdwarf 12.8 light-years away in Pictor: an ancient, metal-poor HALO star on a retrograde Galactic orbit, probably torn from the disrupted globular cluster now seen as Omega Centauri. Two 2014 planet claims were later shown to be stellar artefacts. No planets are confirmed.

Open in 3D viewSee Kapteyn's Star in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type
Red subdwarf (halo)
Distance
12.83 light-years
Confirmed planets
0

Science

Classification

Type
Single red subdwarf (halo star)
Central star
Kapteyn's Star — sdM1 (~3570 K, ~0.28 M☉), metal-poor

Planets

Confirmed planets
None (2014 claims retracted)

Distance

Distance
12.83 light-years

How we know

Note
No planets are confirmed: the 2014 claims of planets b and c were shown by 2021 to be artefacts of the star's rotation, and are not shown. Real distance 12.83 light-years.

Discovery & history

Name
Named for the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn.

Its record proper motion was found by Jacobus Kapteyn in 1898; two 2014 planet claims were shown by 2021 to be stellar-activity artefacts.

Images

Where to find it — in Pictor, the Painter's Easel (IAU constellation chart). To the eye it is a single point of light; no telescope has imaged its surface.
IAU / Sky & Telescope, R. Sinnott & R. Fienberg (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image