HD 73256 is a variable star 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 Pyxis. It has the variable star designation CS Pyxidis. With a baseline apparent visual magnitude of 8.08, it requires a small telescope to view. The star is located at a distance of 120

light year 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 ...

s from the Sun based on

parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...

, and is drifting further away with a

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the temporal rate of change, rate of change of the distance or Slant range, range between the two points. It is e ...

of +30 km/s. The

stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

of this star is G8IV-VFe+0.5, which suggests a slightly evolved

G-type main-sequence star A G-type main-sequence star (Spectral type: G-V), also often, and imprecisely called a yellow dwarf, or G star, is a main-sequence star (luminosity class V) of spectral type G. Such a star has about 0.9 to 1.1 solar masses and an effective temp ...

with a mild overabundance of iron in the spectrum. It is a BY Draconis variable with a period of 13.97 days, showing a variation of 0.03 in magnitude due to

chromospheric activity A chromosphere ("sphere of color") is the second layer of a star's atmosphere, located above the photosphere and below the solar transition region and corona. The term usually refers to the Sun's chromosphere, but not exclusively. In the S ...

. The star appears overluminous for its class, which may be the result of a high

metallicity In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as a ...

. The star has roughly the same mass and a slightly smaller radius as the Sun, but is radiating 74% of the Sun's luminosity. It is around 2–3 billion years old and is spinning with a projected rotational velocity of 3.2 km/s. In 2003, S. Udry and colleagues reported the discovery of a planet in orbit around HD 73256 using data from the

CORALIE spectrograph Leonhard Euler Telescope, or the Swiss EULER Telescope, is a national, fully automatic reflecting telescope, built and operated by the Geneva Observatory. It is located at an altitude of at ESO's La Silla Observatory site in the Chilean Nor ...

. This object is a Hot Jupiter with at least 1.87 times the

mass of Jupiter Jupiter mass, also called Jovian mass, is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter. This value may refer to the mass of the planet alone, or the mass of the entire Jovian system to include the moons of Jupiter. Jupiter is b ...

in an orbit with a period of 2.55 days. Assuming the planet is perfectly grey with no greenhouse or tidal effects, and a Bond albedo of 0.1, the temperature would be about 1300 K. This is close to

51 Pegasi b 51 Pegasi b, officially named Dimidium , and formerly unofficially dubbed Bellerophon , is an extrasolar planet approximately away in the constellation of Pegasus. It was the first exoplanet to be discovered orbiting a main-sequence star, the S ...

; between the predicted temperatures of HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b (1180-1392K), before they were measured. It is a candidate for "near-infrared characterisation with the VLTI Spectro-Imager". In 2018, K. Ment and colleagues reported an attempt to confirm the existence of this planet using Keck/HIRES data, but were unable to do so despite a likelihood of success. Thus the existence of this object is disputed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:HD 73256 G-type main-sequence stars G-type subgiants Hypothetical planetary systems BY Draconis variables Pyxis (constellation) Durchmusterung objects 073256 042214 Pyxidis, CS

See also

References