Iota Centauri
Iota Centauri, Latinized from ι Centauri, is a star in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Based upon parallax measurements, it lies at a distance of approximately from Earth. Iota Centauri has an apparent visual magnitude of +2.73, making it easily visible to the naked eye.

In Chinese, (), meaning "Pillars", refers to an asterism consisting of ι Centauri, υ2 Centauri, υ1 Centauri, a Centauri, ψ Centauri, 4 Centauri, 3 Centauri and 1 Centauri. Consequently, the Chinese name for ι Centauri itself is (, .)

The spectrum of ι Centauri matches a stellar classification of A2 V. It is an A-type main sequence star that is generating energy by the nuclear fusion of hydrogen in its core region. This energy is being radiated from the outer envelope of the star at an effective temperature of 8,600 K, giving the star a white hue. It has about 2.5 times the Sun's mass and is roughly 350 million years old. The abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the metallicity, is only 35% of the abundance in the Sun. A weak magnetic field has been tentatively identified with a strength of .

This star has an excess emission of infrared indicating it is surrounded by a circumstellar disk of dust, known as a debris disk. The disk is located within an orbital radius of six Astronomical Units from the star. The dust is unusually luminous for a star this age, suggesting that some process may have recently increased the amount of debris, such as collisions between planetesimals. Alternatively, the planetesimals in this system may have unusual physical properties. As of 2011, a search for planets in this system has thus far been unsuccessful.

Iota Centauri appears to belong to the stellar kinematic group known as IC 2391. This is a group of around 16 co-moving stars that most likely originated in the same molecular cloud at least 45 million years ago.
Q1806983
Latinized
UNK
Q523
star
Concept
Q8928
constellation
Concept
Q8844
Centaurus
CEL
Q165074
parallax
Concept
Q2
Earth
CEL
Q124313
apparent visual magnitude
Concept
Q2722595
easily visible
Concept
Q1268276
Chinese
Concept
Q1192463
Pillars
CEL
Q3304627
υ2 Centauri
CEL
Q3491245
υ1 Centauri
CEL
Q5097779
a Centauri
CEL
Q2700089
ψ Centauri
CEL
Q4639034
4 Centauri
CEL
Q4636483
3 Centauri
CEL
Q4595939
1 Centauri
CEL
Q7832287
Chinese name
UNK
Q25377588
stellar classification
Concept
Q471805
A-type main sequence star
Concept
Q13082
nuclear fusion
Concept
Q854050
effective temperature
Concept
Q180892
Sun's mass
Concept
Q217030
metallicity
Concept
Q6449
magnetic field
Concept
Q1396651
excess emission of infrared
UNK
Q1326555
debris disk
Concept
Q1811
Astronomical Unit
Concept
Q389824
planetesimal
Concept
Q6440
stellar kinematic group
Concept
Q272447
molecular cloud
Concept
Q2358244
Iota Centauri
CEL
Q2358244
Iota Centauri
CEL
Q2358244
Iota Centauri
CEL
2011-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2011
DATE
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2
NUMBER
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4
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3
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35
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2391
NUMBER
+16^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
16
NUMBER
+45^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
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NUMBER
instance of
constellation
instance of