Markeb

k¹ Puppis occupies a line of sight from Earth that also includes another blue star of similar magnitude, designated k² Puppis. These two stars not only appear close together in the sky, but actually are relatively close to one another in space: k¹ Puppis lies some 389 light years from the Solar System, while k² is slightly closer at 370 light years. Though similar in structure and close to another in space, these are nonetheless two independent stars lying about nineteen light years from one another.

k¹ Puppis is a dwarf or main sequence star, though rather larger and considerably hotter and more luminous than the Sun. It has a diameter approaching four times that of the Sun, and it emits approximately 160 times as much light.

This star appears to have inherited its proper name of Markeb or Markab in error, due to confusion with the star Kappa Velorum which traditionally carried those names. Both stars used, at one time, to belong to the large star-group of Argo Navis, and the confusion between Greek Kappa ('κ') and the Roman letter 'k' apparently resulted in the duplicated star-names.