HD 66141
Star in the constellation Canis Minor
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HD 66141 is a single[8] star with a substellar companion in the equatorial constellation of Canis Minor. It has the Bayer designation G Canis Minoris,[6] the Gould designation 50 G. Canis Minoris,[7] and has the HR 3145 identifier from the Bright Star Catalogue.[6] When first catalogued it was in the Puppis constellation and was designated "13 Puppis", but it subsequently migrated to Canis Minor.[9] Bode gave it the Bayer designation of Lambda Canis Minoris.[10]
 | |
| Observation data Epoch J2000.0 Equinox J2000.0 | |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Canis Minor[1] |
| Right ascension | 08h 02m 15.93692s[2] |
| Declination | +02° 20′ 04.4588″[2] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | +4.39[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | K2IIIbFe-0.5:[3] |
| B−V color index | 1.252±0.008[1] |
| Astrometry | |
| Radial velocity (Rv) | +71.57±0.01[1] km/s |
| Proper motion (μ) | RA: −28.194 mas/yr[2] Dec.: 105.65 mas/yr[2] |
| Parallax (π) | 12.5234±0.1142 mas[2] |
| Distance | 260 ± 2 ly (79.9 ± 0.7 pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | −0.07[1] |
| Details[4] | |
| Mass | 0.98±0.06 M☉ |
| Radius | 23.57±0.40[5] R☉ |
| Luminosity | 209±9[5] L☉ |
| Habitable zone inner limit | 13.45±0.41[5] AU |
| Habitable zone outer limit | 26.38±0.77[5] AU |
| Surface gravity (log g) | 2.09±0.06 cgs |
| Temperature | 4,521±53[5] K |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | −0.52±0.05 dex |
| Rotational velocity (v sin i) | 1.91±0.45 km/s |
| Age | 9.18±2.09 Gyr |
| Other designations | |
| G Canis Minoris, G CMi, 13 Puppis (obsolete), NSV 17713, BD+02°1854, FK5 2623, GC 10891, HD 66141, HIP 39311, HR 3145, SAO 116260, CCDM 08022+0221, WDS J08023+0220A[6][7] | |
| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
| Exoplanet Archive | data |
Properties
This star has an orange hue and is bright enough to be faintly visible to the naked eye on a dark night, having an apparent visual magnitude of +4.39.[1] It is located at a distance of approximately 260 light years from the Sun based on parallax,[2] and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +71.6 km/s.[1] The star is considered a member of the thin disk population.[4] It has one known substellar companion, previously believed to be a planet,[11] but now thought to be a likely brown dwarf, with some caveats.[12]
The stellar classification of HD 66141 is K2IIIbFe-0.5:,[3] which indicates an evolved K-type giant star with a mild underabundance of iron. It is an estimated nine billion years old with 0.98 times the mass of the Sun[4] and has expanded to 23.5 times the Sun's radius.[5] Over 2003 to 2012 a starspot was periodically dimming its light.[11] The star is radiating 209 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,521 K.[5]
A magnitude 10.32 visual companion was reported by J. Glaisher in 1842. As of 2015, it was located at an angular separation of 224.90 arcseconds along a position angle of 315°.[13]
Planetary system
From December 2003 to January 2012, the team B.-C. Lee, I. Han, and M.-G. Park observed HD 66141 with "the fiber-fed Bohyunsan Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO)".[11]
In 2012, a long-period, wide-orbiting exoplanet was deduced by radial velocity. This was published in November.
However, in 2024, a study using astrometry from the Gaia spacecraft suggest that HD 66141 b is actually a brown dwarf, with a maximum mass estimated at 23.9+7.2
−6.4 MJ, based on a large RUWE in the astrometric solution (which could imply that there is a brown dwarf orbiting HD 66141), but they also note that mechanisms such as calibration errors could also explain the large RUWE. A bayesian analysis combining astrometry and radial velocity also measure an orbital inclination of 17 degrees and an orbital period of 480.7 days (1.316 years).[12]
| Companion (in order from star) |
Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) |
Orbital period (days) |
Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | ≤23.9+7.2 −6.4[12] MJ |
1.2 ± 0.1[11] | 480.7±0.1[11] | 0.07 ± 0.03[11] | 17+3 −4[12]° |
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