Luyten's Star

Luyten's Star

system

Luyten's Star (GJ 273) is a red dwarf 12.4 light-years away in Canis Minor, near brilliant Procyon. It hosts two confirmed planets, one temperate; in 2017 the METI project beamed a radio message toward that temperate world, due to arrive in 2030.

Open in 3D viewSee Luyten's Star in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type
Red dwarf (M3.5V)
Distance
12.35 light-years
Confirmed planets
2

Science

Classification

Type
Single red-dwarf system
Central star
Luyten's Star — M3.5V (~3380 K, ~0.29 M☉)

Planets

Confirmed planets
2 (b temperate, c hot)
Masses
Radial-velocity minimum masses ~1.2 and ~2.9 Earth

Distance

Distance
12.35 light-years

How we know

Note
Two confirmed planets (radial-velocity minimum masses; radii unmeasured). A 2017 METI radio message was aimed at planet b. Real distance 12.35 light-years.

Discovery & history

Name
Named for the astronomer Willem Luyten; also GJ 273.

Catalogued by Willem Luyten; its planets were found by HARPS in 2017, the year a METI message was beamed toward its temperate planet.

Images

Where to find it — in Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog (IAU constellation chart). To the eye it is a single point of light; no telescope has imaged its surface.
IAU / Sky & Telescope, R. Sinnott & R. Fienberg (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image