BD+14 4559


BD+14 4559, named Solaris, is a 10th magnitude K-type main sequence star located approximately 161 light years away in the constellation of Pegasus. On June 10, 2009, an exoplanet was found in orbit by Niedzielski et al. using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.
The star BD+14 4559 was named during the NameExoWorlds campaign by Poland. Solaris is the title of a 1961 science fiction novel about an ocean-covered exoplanet by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem.

Stellar characteristics

BD+14 4559 is a K-type star that is approximately 86% the mass of and 95% the radius of the Sun. It has a surface temperature of 5008 K and is likely about 3 billion years old based on its characteristics. In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old and has a surface temperature of 5778 K.
The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 9.63. Therefore, it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, but can be seen with good binoculars.

Planetary system

The star is known to host one planet, Pirx, and is 47% more massive than Jupiter. It orbits within the habitable zone of its parent star at a distance of 0.77 AU, somewhat close to the orbital distance of Venus.
Based on observations, there may be an undetected second planet orbiting the star, however this is unconfirmed.