HR 8799

Common card · No. 216176

HR 8799 is a roughly 42 million-year-old main-sequence star located 133.3 light-years (40.9 parsecs) away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. It has roughly 1.4 times the Sun's mass and 5 times its luminosity. It is part of a system that also contains a debris disk and at least four massive planets. These planets were the first exoplanets whose orbital motion was confirmed by direct imaging. The star is a Gamma Doradus variable: its luminosity changes because of non-radial pulsations of its surface. The star is also classified as a Lambda Boötis star, which means its surface layers are depleted in iron peak elements. It is the only known star which is simultaneously a Gamma Doradus variable, a Lambda Boötis type, and a Vega-like star (a star with excess infrared emission caused by a circumstellar disk).

Read on Wikipedia · Image Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Laurent Pueyo (STScI), William Balmer (JHU), Marshall Perrin (STScI), Public domain