HD 9446 is a star located about 164 light-years away in the constellation of

Triangulum Triangulum is a small constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "triangle", derived from its three brightest stars, which form a long and narrow triangle. Known to the ancient Babylonians and Greeks, Triangulum was one of the 48 ...

, near the southwestern constellation border with

Pisces Pisces may refer to: * Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish * Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign * Pisces (constellation), a constellation **Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in ...

. This object can be viewed with binoculars or a telescope, but it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye at its

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 8.35. It is drifting further away from 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 ...

with a radial velocity of +21 km/s. This object is a

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 temper ...

with a stellar classification of G5V. The physical properties this star appear similar to the

, making it a candidate

solar analog Solar-type star, solar analogs (also analogues), and solar twins are stars that are particularly similar to the Sun. The stellar classification is a hierarchy with solar twin being most like the Sun followed by solar analog and then solar-type ...

. However, the measured abundance of elements with more mass than helium is outside the accepted range. It is roughly two billion years in age and has an active chromosphere. The amount of activity measured in the chromosphere corresponds to a star with a rotation period of about 10 days. On 5 January 2010, scientists announced the discovery of two planets orbiting around HD 9446.

References

{{Stars of Triangulum G-type main-sequence stars Planetary systems with two confirmed planets Triangulum (constellation) Durchmusterung objects 009446 007245

See also

References