Kappa Canis Majoris

Kappa Canis Majoris, Latinized from κ Canis Majoris, is a solitary, blue-white hued star in the constellation Canis Major. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.87. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 7.70 mas as seen from Earth, this star is located about 660 light years from the Sun.

This is a B-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of B1.5 Ve, although Hiltner et al. (1969) classified it as B1.5 IVe suggesting it is a subgiant star. The 'e' suffix indicates it is a rapidly rotating Be star with a circumstellar decretion disk of heated gas. The radius of the emitting disk is about $14$, or about 3.7 times the radius of the star. It is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae type variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +3.4 to +3.97. The star became 50% brighter between 1963 and 1978, increasing from magnitude 3.96 or so to 3.52.

Naming
In Chinese, 弧矢 (Hú Shǐ), meaning Bow and Arrow, refers to an asterism consisting of κ Canis Majoris, δ Canis Majoris, η Canis Majoris, HD 63032, HD 65456, ο Puppis, k Puppis, ε Canis Majoris and π Puppis. Consequently, κ Canis Majoris itself is known as 弧矢八 (Hú Shǐ bā, the Eighth Star of Bow and Arrow.)