Gliese 1061 is a

red dwarf ''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...

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 ...

located approximately 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 ...

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 ...

of Horologium. Even though it is a relatively nearby star, it has 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 about 13, so it can only be seen with at least a moderately-sized

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

. The

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...

of Gliese 1061 has been known since 1974, but it was estimated to be further away: approximately distant based upon an estimated parallax of 0.130 ″. The RECONS accurately determined its distance in 1997. At that time, it was the 20th-nearest star system to the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. The discovery team noted that many more stars like this are likely to be discovered nearby. This star is a tiny, dim, red dwarf, close to the lower mass limit. It has an estimated mass of about 12.5% that of the Sun and is only about 0.2% as luminous. The star displays no significant

infrared excess An infrared excess is a measurement of an astronomical source, typically a star, that in their spectral energy distribution has a greater measured infrared flux than expected by assuming the star is a blackbody radiator. Infrared excesses are o ...

due to circumstellar dust.

Planetary system

On August 13, 2019, a planetary system was announced orbiting the star Gliese 1061 by the Red Dots project for detecting terrestrial planets around nearby red dwarf stars. The planet Gliese 1061 d orbits in the conservative circumstellar habitable zone of its star and the planet Gliese 1061 c orbits in the inner edge of the habitable zone. Gliese 1061 is a non-variable star that does not suffer flares, so there is a greater probability that the exoplanets still conserve their atmosphere if they had one.

Gliese 1061 c

Gliese 1061 c (also known as GJ 1061 c) is a potentially habitable

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

orbiting within the limits of the optimistic defined habitable zone of its

parent star. Gliese 1061 c is 75% more massive than the Earth. The planet receives 35% more stellar flux than Earth and has an equilibrium temperature of . The average temperature on the surface would be warmer, , provided the atmosphere is of similar composition to the Earth's. Gliese 1061 c orbits its parent star very closely, every 6.7 days at a distance of just 0.035 au, so it is probably gravitationally locked and in synchronous rotation with its star.

Gliese 1061 d

Gliese 1061 d (also known as GJ 1061 d) is a potentially habitable

largely orbiting within the limits of the conservative defined habitable zone of its parent red dwarf star. The exoplanet is 68% more massive than the Earth. The planet receives about 40% less stellar flux than Earth and has an estimated equilibrium temperature of . The average temperature on the surface would be colder than Earth's and at around , provided the atmosphere is similar to that of Earth. Gliese 1061 d orbits its star every 13 days, and due to its close-in semi-major axis, it is likely that the exoplanet is

tidally locked Tidal locking between a pair of co-orbiting astronomical body, astronomical bodies occurs when one of the objects reaches a state where there is no longer any net change in its rotation rate over the course of a complete orbit. In the case where ...

. However, if the planet's orbit is confirmed to be highly eccentric then this eccentricity could be desynchronising it, enabling the existence of non-synchronised states of equilibrium in its rotation, relative to which side of the planet is facing the star, and thereby it will experience a day/night cycle.

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