51 Pegasi

▪ star

      fifth-magnitude star located 50 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, the first sunlike star confirmed to possess a planet. 51 Pegasi, which has physical properties (luminosity and temperature, for example) very similar to those of the Sun, became the focus of attention in 1995 when astronomers announced the detection of a planet orbiting it. The extrasolar planet is not visible from Earth, but its presence was deduced from the wobble that its gravity induces in the parent star's motion in a 4.2-day cycle. It has a mass at least half that of Jupiter and orbits surprisingly close to the star—much closer than Mercury orbits the Sun.

John Donald Fernie

 

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