The star system was discovered in 1948 by Willem Jacob Luyten in the course of compiling a catalog of stars of high proper motion; he noted its exceptionally high proper motion of 3.37 arc seconds annually and cataloged it as Luyten 726-8. The two stars are of nearly equal brightness, with visual magnitudes of 12.7 and 13.2 as seen from Earth. They orbit one another every 26.5 years. The distance between the two stars varies from. The Luyten 726-8 system is approximately from Earth's Solar System, in the constellation Cetus, and is thus the seventh-closest star system to Earth. Its own nearest neighbor is Tau Ceti, away from it. If km/s then approximately 28,700 years ago Luyten 726-8 was at its minimal distance of 2.21 pc from the Sun. Luyten-726-8A was later found to be a variable star and given the variable star designationBL Ceti. It is a red dwarf of spectral type M5.5e. It is also a flare star, and classified as a UV Ceti variable type, but it is not nearly as remarkable or extreme in its behavior as its companion star UV Ceti. BL Ceti is also known as G 272-061. Soon after the discovery of Luyten 726-8A, the companion star Luyten 726-8B was discovered. Like Luyten 726-8A, this star was also found to be variable and given the variable star designation UV Ceti. Although UV Ceti was not the first flare star discovered, it is the most prominent example of such a star, so similar flare stars are now classified as UV Ceti type variable stars. This star goes through fairly extreme changes of brightness: for instance, in 1952, its brightness increased by 75 times in only 20 seconds. UV Ceti is a red dwarf of spectral type M6.0e. In approximately 31,500 years, Luyten 726-8 will have a close encounter with Epsilon Eridani at the minimal distance of about 0.93 ly. Luyten 726-8 can penetrate a conjectured Oort cloud about Epsilon Eridani, which may gravitationally perturb some long-period comets. The duration of mutual transit of two star systems within 1 ly from each other is about 4,600 years. Luyten 726-8 is a possible member of the Hyades Stream.
