This star is 24% more massive and 64% larger than the Sun. The total luminosity is 2.96 times that of the Sun and its temperature 5960 K.[2] The age of the star is estimated at 3.7 billion years,[2] with metallicity 1.35 times that of the Sun based on its abundance of iron.
Planetary system
In April 2001, two giant planets were announced orbiting the star.[3][4] The first planet HD 74156 b orbits the star at a distance closer than Mercury is to the Sun, in an extremely eccentric orbit. The second planet HD 74156 c is a long-period, massive planet (at least 8 times the mass of Jupiter), which orbits the star in an elliptical orbit with a semimajor axis of 3.90 astronomical units.[2] In 2022, the inclination and true mass of HD 74156 c were measured via astrometry.[5]
Given the two-planet configuration of the system under the assumption that the orbits are coplanar and have masses equal to their minimum masses, an additional Saturn-mass planet would be stable in a region between 0.9 and 1.4 AU between the orbits of the two known planets.[7] Under the "packed planetary systems" hypothesis, which predicts that planetary systems form in such a way that the system could not support additional planets between the orbits of the existing ones, the gap would be expected to host a planet.
In September 2007, a third planet with a mass at least 0.396 Jupiter masses was announced to be orbiting between planets b and c with an eccentric orbit.[8] The planet, orbiting in a region of the planetary system previously known to be stable for additional planets, was seen as a confirmation of the "packed planetary systems" hypothesis.[9] However, Roman V. Baluev has cast doubt on this discovery, suggesting that the observed variations may be due to annual errors in the data.[10] A subsequent search using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope also failed to confirm the planet,[11] and further data obtained using HIRES instrument strongly contradicts its existence.[2]
