A light curve for Pi Puppis, plotted from Hipparcos data, folded with the period derived by Koen and Eyer (2002)
The spectrum of Pi Puppis matches a stellar classification of K3Ib. The Ib luminosity class indicates this a lower luminosity supergiant star that has consumed the hydrogen fuel at its core, evolved away from the main sequence, and expanded to about 235 times the Sun's radius. The effective temperature of the star's outer envelope is approximately 4,000K, which gives it the orange hue of a K-type star. With a mass 11.7 times that of the Sun, this is a short-lived star with an estimated age of 20million years.
This star does not seem to have had a traditional proper name, but some 21st-century sources use the name Ahadi, which is derived from Arabic for "having much promise". This name appears in the SIMBAD database and at least one academic paper.
About every five years, the Pi Puppids, a meteor shower associated with the comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup, appears near the star in late April. The Pi Puppids are a variable meteor shower, with varying maximums each year.
12"zeta Pup". International Variable Star Index. AAVSO. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
12Houk, Nancy (1979), "Michigan Catalogue of Two-dimensional Spectral Types for the HD Stars", Michigan Catalogue of Two-dimensional Spectral Types for the HD Stars. Volume_3. Declinations -40_ƒ0 to -26_ƒ0, 3, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Dept. of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Bibcode:1982mcts.book.....H
123Gutierrez-Moreno, Adelina; etal. (1966), "A System of photometric standards", Publ. Dept. Astron. Univ. Chile, 1, Publicaciones Universidad de Chile, Department de Astronomy: 1–17, Bibcode:1966PDAUC...1....1G
123Kazarovets, E. V.; etal. (January 1999), "The 74th Special Name-list of Variable Stars", Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, 4659: 1, Bibcode:1999IBVS.4659....1K
↑Evans, D. S. (June 20–24, 1966). "The Revision of the General Catalogue of Radial Velocities". In Batten, Alan Henry; Heard, John Frederick (eds.). Determination of Radial Velocities and their Applications, Proceedings from IAU Symposium no. 30. Determination of Radial Velocities and Their Applications. Vol.30. University of Toronto: International Astronomical Union. p.57. Bibcode:1967IAUS...30...57E.
↑Fabricius, C.; Makarov, V. V. (April 2000), "Two-colour photometry for 9473 components of close Hipparcos double and multiple stars", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 356: 141–145, Bibcode:2000A&A...356..141F
↑"The Colour of Stars", Australia Telescope, Outreach and Education, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, December 21, 2004, archived from the original on March 18, 2012, retrieved 2012-01-16