Star in the constellation Ursa Minor
11 Ursae Minoris is a single[ 8] star located approximately 410 light years away[ 1] in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor . The star is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange-hued star with an apparent visual magnitude of 5.15.[ 2] It is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −17.8 km/s.[ 1]
This is an aging K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K4 III.[ 3] It is 600 million years old with twice the mass of the Sun . As a consequence of exhausting the hydrogen at its core , the star has expanded to 29 times the Sun's radius .[ 5] It is radiating 250 times the luminosity of the Sun from its swollen photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,253 K.[ 6]
11 Ursae Minoris is sometimes named Pherkard or Pherkad Minor , the later name to distinguish it from Pherkad (Major) which is γ Ursae Minoris . It has also been designated as γ1 Ursae Minoris, in which case the brighter Pherkad is called γ2 Ursae Minoris, but these names are rarely used.[ 9] 11 Ursae Minoris is the Flamsteed designation .
11 Ursae Minoris has a detected planet discovered in August 2009.[ 4]
Planetary system
11 Ursae Minoris b was discovered during a radial velocity survey of 62 K type Red giant stars using the 2m Alfred Jensch telescope of the Thuringian State Observatory in Germany .[ 4]
A newer mass measurement of the host star implies a larger planetary mass of 14.15± 1.23 M J , which would make 11 Ursae Minoris b a low-mass brown dwarf.[ 5]
References
^ a b c d e f g Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties" . Astronomy and Astrophysics . 674 : A1. arXiv :2208.00211 . Bibcode :2023A&A...674A...1G . doi :10.1051/0004-6361/202243940 . S2CID 244398875 .
Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR .
^ a b c d e f g Anderson, E.; Francis, Ch. (2012). "XHIP: An extended hipparcos compilation". Astronomy Letters . 38 (5): 331. arXiv :1108.4971 . Bibcode :2012AstL...38..331A . doi :10.1134/S1063773712050015 . S2CID 119257644 .
^ a b Baines, Ellyn K.; et al. (2018). "Fundamental Parameters of 87 Stars from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer" . The Astronomical Journal . 155 (1). 30. arXiv :1712.08109 . Bibcode :2018AJ....155...30B . doi :10.3847/1538-3881/aa9d8b . S2CID 119427037 .
^ a b c d Döllinger, P.; et al. (2009). "Planetary companions around the K giant stars 11 Ursae Minoris and HD 32518" . Astronomy and Astrophysics . 505 (3): 1311– 1317. arXiv :0908.1753 . Bibcode :2009A&A...505.1311D . doi :10.1051/0004-6361/200911702 . S2CID 9686080 .
^ a b c d e f g Baines, Ellyn K.; Jones, Jeremy; Clark, James H.; Schmitt, Henrique R.; Stone, Jordan M. (January 2025). "Eighteen Exoplanet Host Stars from the NPOI Data Archive" . The Astronomical Journal . 169 (2): 83. doi :10.3847/1538-3881/ad9bb1 . ISSN 1538-3881 .
^ a b c d e Soubiran, C.; Creevey, O.; Lagarde, N.; Brouillet, N.; Jofré, P.; Casamiquela, L.; Heiter, U.; Aguilera–Gómez, C.; Vitali, S.; Worley, C.; de Brito Silva, D. (February 2024). "Gaia FGK benchmark stars: Fundamental T eff and log ɡ of the third version (Corrigendum) ". Astronomy & Astrophysics . 693 : C3. arXiv :2310.11302 . doi :10.1051/0004-6361/202453050e . ISSN 0004-6361 .
^ "11 UMi" . SIMBAD . Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg . Retrieved 8 September 2012 .
^ Eggleton, P. P.; Tokovinin, A. A. (September 2008), "A catalogue of multiplicity among bright stellar systems", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 389 (2): 869– 879, arXiv :0806.2878 , Bibcode :2008MNRAS.389..869E , doi :10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13596.x , S2CID 14878976 .
^ Kostjuk, N. D. (2004). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: HD-DM-GC-HR-HIP-Bayer-Flamsteed Cross Index (Kostjuk, 2002)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: IV/27A. Originally Published in: Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences (2002) . 4027 . Bibcode :2004yCat.4027....0K .
External links