Beta Ursae Minoris (β UMi, β Ursae Minoris) is the brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper" (which is part of the constellation Ursa Minor), and only slightly fainter than Polaris, the northern pole star and brightest star in Ursa Minor. It has the traditional name Kochab. Kochab is 16 degrees from Polaris and has an apparent visual magnitude of 2.08. The distance to this star can be deduced from the parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos, yielding a value of 130.9 light-years (40.1 parsecs).

Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are both naked eye stars and are sometimes referred to as the "Guardians of the Pole". They served as twin pole stars, Earth's North pole stars, from 1500 BC until 500 AD. Neither star was as proximitous to the pole as Polaris is now. Due to precession of the equinoxes, the previous holder of the title was Thuban, and the next was the present-day Polaris. This succession of pole stars is a result of earth's precessional motion.

This is a giant star with a stellar classification of K4 III. It is 130 times more luminous than the Sun. Kochab has reached a state in its evolution where the outer envelope has expanded to 42 times the girth of the Sun. This enlarged atmosphere is radiating 390 times as much luminosity as the Sun from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 4,030 K. This heat gives the star the orange-hued glow of a K-type star.