BD−17 63 is a

K-type main-sequence star A K-type main-sequence star, also referred to as a K-type dwarf, or orange dwarf, is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type K and luminosity class V. These stars are intermediate in size between red M-type main-sequence stars ...

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 first constellati ...

Cetus Cetus () is a constellation, sometimes called 'the whale' in English. The Cetus (mythology), Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology which both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water- ...

. It is a 10th

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

star at a distance of 113

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. The star is rotating slowly with a negligible level of

magnetic activity A stellar magnetic field is a magnetic field generated by the motion of conductive Plasma (physics), plasma inside a star. This motion is created through convection, which is a form of energy transport involving the physical movement of material ...

and an age of over 4 billion years. The star BD-17 63 is named Felixvarela. The name was selected in the

NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) were various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, notably exoplanets. The accepted names would later be cons ...

campaign by

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, during the 100th anniversary of the

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

Felix Varela Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

(1788–1853) was the first to teach science in Cuba.

Planetary system

In October 2008 an

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

, BD−17 63 b, was reported to be orbiting this star on an eccentric orbit. This object was detected using the

radial velocity method Doppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in th ...

by search programs conducted using the

HARPS The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision Echelle grating, echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO 3.6 m Telescope, ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The First l ...

spectrograph. An

astrometric Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. History ...

measurement of the planet's inclination and true mass was published in 2022 as part of

Gaia DR3 The ''Gaia'' catalogues are star catalogues created using the results obtained by ''Gaia'' space telescope. The catalogues are released in stages that will contain increasing amounts of information; the early releases also miss some stars, espec ...

, with another astrometric orbital solution published in 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:BD 17 63 K-type main-sequence stars Planetary systems with one confirmed planet Cetus BD-17 0063 002247 Felixvarela

Planetary system

See also

References