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61 Virginis
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61 Virginis
61 Virginis (abbreviated 61 Vir) is a G-type main-sequence star (G7V) slightly less massive than the Sun (which has a hotter G2V spectral type), located 27.8 light-years (8.5 parsecs) away in the constellation of Virgo. The composition of this star is nearly identical to the Sun.
61 Virginis is a fifth-magnitude G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G7 V. It is faint but visible to the naked eye in the zodiac constellation of Virgo, close to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation. The designation 61 Virginis originated in the star catalogue of English astronomer John Flamsteed, as part of his Historia Coelestis Britannica. An 1835 account of Flamsteed's work by English astronomer Francis Baily noted that the star showed a proper motion. This made the star of interest for parallax studies, and by 1950 a mean annual value of 0.006″ was obtained, resulting in a distance of 170 pc (550 ly). The present day result, obtained with data from the Gaia satellite, gives a parallax of 117.17 mas (0.117"), which corresponds to a distance of 8.534 pc (27.83 ly).
This star is similar in physical properties to the Sun, with around 93% of the Sun's mass, 99% of the radius, and 82% of the luminosity. The abundance of elements is also similar to the Sun, with the star having 101% of the Sun's proportion of iron to hydrogen. It is older than the Sun, around 7.7 billion years old, and is spinning with a leisurely projected rotational velocity of 4 km/s at the equator. On average, there is only a low level of activity in the stellar chromosphere and it is a candidate for being in a Maunder minimum state, but it was suspected as variable in 1988, and a burst of activity was observed between Julian days [24]54800 (29 November 2008) and 55220 (23 January 2010).
The space velocity components of this star are U = –37.9, V = –35.3 and W = –24.7 km/s. 61 Vir is orbiting through the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 6.9 kpc from the core, with an eccentricity of 0.15. It is believed to be a member of the disk population.
On 14 December 2009, scientists announced the discovery of three exoplanets with minimum masses between 5 and 25 times that of Earth orbiting 61 Virginis, using the radial velocity method at the Keck and Anglo-Australian Observatories. The three planets all orbit very near the star; when compared to the orbits of the planets in the Solar System, all three would orbit inside that of Venus. The two outer planets likely resemble Uranus and Neptune, while the innermost planet may be a mini-Neptune or a rocky super-Earth.
The outermost of these three planets, 61 Virginis d (also designated HD 115617 d), was initially not detected in the HARPS data as of 2012 until a reanalysis of the data was done in 2023. A 2021 study listed it as a false positive, but in 2023 two published studies further confirmed it based on an additional 10 years of radial velocity data, though with a smaller minimum mass.
Assuming the planets are aligned with the disk around the star, 61 Virginis b, c and d should have masses of 6.3, 19.8 and 12.6 M🜨.
The ecliptic of the 61 Virginis system, as inferred from its dust disc, is inclined to the Solar System at 77°. The star itself is probably inclined at 72°.
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61 Virginis
61 Virginis (abbreviated 61 Vir) is a G-type main-sequence star (G7V) slightly less massive than the Sun (which has a hotter G2V spectral type), located 27.8 light-years (8.5 parsecs) away in the constellation of Virgo. The composition of this star is nearly identical to the Sun.
61 Virginis is a fifth-magnitude G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G7 V. It is faint but visible to the naked eye in the zodiac constellation of Virgo, close to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation. The designation 61 Virginis originated in the star catalogue of English astronomer John Flamsteed, as part of his Historia Coelestis Britannica. An 1835 account of Flamsteed's work by English astronomer Francis Baily noted that the star showed a proper motion. This made the star of interest for parallax studies, and by 1950 a mean annual value of 0.006″ was obtained, resulting in a distance of 170 pc (550 ly). The present day result, obtained with data from the Gaia satellite, gives a parallax of 117.17 mas (0.117"), which corresponds to a distance of 8.534 pc (27.83 ly).
This star is similar in physical properties to the Sun, with around 93% of the Sun's mass, 99% of the radius, and 82% of the luminosity. The abundance of elements is also similar to the Sun, with the star having 101% of the Sun's proportion of iron to hydrogen. It is older than the Sun, around 7.7 billion years old, and is spinning with a leisurely projected rotational velocity of 4 km/s at the equator. On average, there is only a low level of activity in the stellar chromosphere and it is a candidate for being in a Maunder minimum state, but it was suspected as variable in 1988, and a burst of activity was observed between Julian days [24]54800 (29 November 2008) and 55220 (23 January 2010).
The space velocity components of this star are U = –37.9, V = –35.3 and W = –24.7 km/s. 61 Vir is orbiting through the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of 6.9 kpc from the core, with an eccentricity of 0.15. It is believed to be a member of the disk population.
On 14 December 2009, scientists announced the discovery of three exoplanets with minimum masses between 5 and 25 times that of Earth orbiting 61 Virginis, using the radial velocity method at the Keck and Anglo-Australian Observatories. The three planets all orbit very near the star; when compared to the orbits of the planets in the Solar System, all three would orbit inside that of Venus. The two outer planets likely resemble Uranus and Neptune, while the innermost planet may be a mini-Neptune or a rocky super-Earth.
The outermost of these three planets, 61 Virginis d (also designated HD 115617 d), was initially not detected in the HARPS data as of 2012 until a reanalysis of the data was done in 2023. A 2021 study listed it as a false positive, but in 2023 two published studies further confirmed it based on an additional 10 years of radial velocity data, though with a smaller minimum mass.
Assuming the planets are aligned with the disk around the star, 61 Virginis b, c and d should have masses of 6.3, 19.8 and 12.6 M🜨.
The ecliptic of the 61 Virginis system, as inferred from its dust disc, is inclined to the Solar System at 77°. The star itself is probably inclined at 72°.
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