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BD-17°63 is an low-mass K type star

Stellar classification

In astronomy, stellar classification is a classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. The spectral class of a star is a designated class of a star describing the ionization of its chromosphere, what atomic excitations are most prominent in the light, giving an objective measure...

 in the southern 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....

 Cetus. It is a 9th magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 star at a distance of about 116 light years from Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.

Planetary system

In October 2008 an 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...

, BD-17°63 b

BD-17°63 b

BD-17°63 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 113 light-years away in the constellation of Cetus, orbiting the 10th magnitude K-type main sequence star BD-17°63. This planet has a minimum mass of 5.1 MJ and orbits at a distance of 1.34 astronomical units from the star. The distance...

, was reported to be orbiting this star. This object was detected using the radial velocity method by search programs conducted using the HARPS spectrograph.