This star is moving toward the Solar System with a radial velocity of 36 km s−1. It was previously believed that in roughly 222,000 years, this system could have approached within 1.77 light-years (0.54 parsecs) of the Sun. However, the estimate had a considerable margin of error in it.[11] With the release of Gaia DR2, the star was determined to be 4 times further from the Sun than initially believed, constraining the approach to only 111 ± 31 light-years (34.0 ± 9.5 parsecs).[5] Examination of other objects known to be in the same star-forming region gives a distance of 152.9+8.1 −7.3pc, suggesting an error in the Gaia parallax for R CrB itself.[6]
A companion to the star was proposed in 2019 with a mass between 0.1 and 1 Solar masses, depending on the characteristics of the stellar environment, orbiting the primary in 43–47 years.[8] The companion was later directly observed to be a red dwarf with a mass between 0.3 M☉ and 0.55 M☉.[6] It has also been proposed that the primary component is itself a close binary.[7]
^Samus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; et al. (2009). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S. 1. Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.
^Dybczyński, P. A. (April 2006), "Simulating observable comets. III. Real stellar perturbers of the Oort cloud and their output", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 449 (3): 1233–1242, Bibcode:2006A&A...449.1233D, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20054284