Eta Telescopii (η Telescopii) is a white-hued

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

in the southern

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Telescopium Telescopium is a minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve named in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its name is a Latinized for ...

. This is an

A-type main sequence star An A-type main-sequence star (A V) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class V (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure between 1 ...

with an

apparent visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's lig ...

of +5.03. It is approximately 158

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and is a member of the

Beta Pictoris Moving Group The Beta Pictoris Moving Group is a young moving group of stars located relatively near Earth. A moving group, in astronomy, is a group of stars that share a common motion through space as well as a common origin. This moving group is named for B ...

of stars that share a common motion through space. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 23.7 km/s relative to the Sun. In 1998, imaging with the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

revealed a 12th magnitude object around 4" distant from Eta Telescopii, and calculated to be a brown dwarf of spectral type M7V or M8V with a surface temperature of around 2600 K. It is located around 192 AU distant from the primary star, and weighs between 20 and 50 Jupiter masses. This star has 3.24 times the mass of the Sun and is radiating around 24 times the Sun's luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

of 11,941. The age of the star is only about 12 million years. It is emitting an excess of infrared radiation that suggests the presence of a circumstellar disk of dust at an orbital radius of 24 AU, and an unresolved asteroid belt at 4 AU from the host star. Subsequent imaging showed there were no objects of 20 Jupiter masses or greater between the disk and the brown dwarf, leading the researchers Neuhäuser and colleagues to postulate that the brown dwarf had an eccentric orbit – if 200 AU were its furthest distance from the primary, then it could come as close as 71 AU with an average distance of 136 AU. Eta Telescopii is in fact a triple star system; further away, separated by 7', is the

common proper motion This glossary of astronomy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to astronomy and cosmology, their sub-disciplines, and related fields. Astronomy is concerned with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outsid ...

companion HD 181327, a yellow-white main sequence star of spectral type F6V and apparent magnitude 7.0, which has its own debris disk. This disk has a sharply-defined inner edge at 31 AU, indicating a likely planet between 19 and 31 AU from the star.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eta Telescopii A-type main-sequence stars Circumstellar disks Beta Pictoris moving group Telescopii, Eta Telescopium (constellation) Durchmusterung objects 181296 095261 7329