HD 102776, also known by its Bayer designation j Centauri, is a suspected astrometric binary star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It has a blue-white hue and is faintly visible to the naked eye with a typical apparent visual magnitude of 4.30. The distance to this star is approximately 600 light years based on parallax, and it is drifting further away with a radial velocity of ~29 km/s. It is a member of the Lower Centaurus Crux subgroup of the Sco OB2 association. HD 102776 has a relatively large peculiar velocity of 31.1 km/s and is a candidate runaway star that was ejected from its association, most likely by a supernova explosion.
The stellar classification of the visible component is B3V, matching a B-type main-sequence star. It is around 32 million years old and is spinning rapidly with estimates of its projected rotational velocity ranging from 200 up to 270 km/s, giving it an equatorial bulge that is up to 11% larger than the polar radius. This is a Be star showing emission features in its Balmer lines due to a circumstellar disk of decreated gas. It is classified as a suspected Gamma Cassiopeiae type variable star with a visual magnitude varying from 4.30 down to 4.39.
References
