HD 172051
Encyclopedia
HD 172051 is a main sequence
dwarf star in the
constellation
Sagittarius
.
It is located about 42 light years from the Sun
and is considered a solar analog. It is similar in mass to the Sun, although it is cooler and has a lower luminosity. Due to this similarity, HD 172051 has been selected as an early target star for both the Terrestrial Planet Finder
and Darwin
missions, which seek to find an Earth-like extrasolar planet
.
Main sequence
The main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell...
dwarf star in the
constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
Sagittarius
Sagittarius (constellation)
Sagittarius is a constellation of the zodiac, the one containing the galactic center. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is , a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur drawing a bow...
.
It is located about 42 light years from the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
and is considered a solar analog. It is similar in mass to the Sun, although it is cooler and has a lower luminosity. Due to this similarity, HD 172051 has been selected as an early target star for both the Terrestrial Planet Finder
Terrestrial Planet Finder
The Terrestrial Planet Finder was a proposed project by NASA to construct a system of telescopes for detecting extrasolar terrestrial planets. TPF was postponed several times and finally cancelled...
and Darwin
Darwin (ESA)
Darwin was a suggested ESA Cornerstone mission which would have involved a constellation of four to nine spacecraft designed to directly detect Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars and search for evidence of life on these planets...
missions, which seek to find an Earth-like extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
.