KW Sagittarii is a red supergiant star, located approximately 2,420 parsecs (7,900 light-years) away from the Sun in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.
If placed at the center of the Solar System, the star's surface would engulf Mars, coming close to Jupiter's orbit.
[9] The peculiar cool spectrum has led to comparisons with symbiotic variables, but it is no longer considered to be a cataclysmic binary.
The Gaia result carries a significant statistical margin of error, as well as an indicator that the astrometric excess noise is far beyond acceptable levels so that the parallax should be considered unreliable.
[4] A 2005 study led by Levesque, using a MARCS model, calculated a high luminosity of 363,000 L☉ for KW Sgr and consequently very large radius of 1,460 R☉ based on the assumption of an effective temperature of 3,700 K at a distance of 3,000 pc.