Astronomy:VB 10

Short description: Very small red dwarf star in the constellation Aquila

VB 10

An animation of images taken with the 200 in (5.1 m) Hale Telescope over a period of nine years showing the proper motion of VB 10.
Observation data Equinox J2000.0]] (ICRS)
Constellation	Aquila
Right ascension	19h 16m 57.62s
Declination	+05° 09′ 02.2″
Apparent magnitude (V)	17.30
Characteristics
Spectral type	M8V
Apparent magnitude (B)	~19.42
Apparent magnitude (R)	~15.6
Apparent magnitude (J)	9.908 ±0.025
Apparent magnitude (H)	9.226 ±0.026
Apparent magnitude (K)	8.765 ±0.022
Variable type	UV
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ)	RA: -614 mas/yr Dec.: -1368 mas/yr
Parallax (π)	168.9537 ± 0.0668 mas
Distance	19.304 ± 0.008 ly (5.919 ± 0.002 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)	18.7
Details
Mass	0.0881+0.0026 −0.0024 M☉
Radius	0.1183+0.0059 −0.0057 R☉
Luminosity (bolometric)	0.000499±0.000004 L☉
Luminosity (visual, LV)	0.000003 L☉
Temperature	2,508+63 −60 K
Metallicity	~0
Age	~1 Gyr
Other designations
2MASS J19165762+0509021, BD+04 4048 B, V1298 Aquilae, Gliese 752 B, Van Biesbroeck's Star
Database references
SIMBAD	data
Exoplanet Archive	data
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia	data

VB 10 or Van Biesbroeck's star /vænˈbiːzbrʊk/ is a small and dim red dwarf located in the constellation Aquila. It is part of a binary star system. VB 10 is historically notable as it is one of the faintest known stars to exist. Although it is relatively close to Earth, at about 19 light years, VB 10 is a dim magnitude 17, making it difficult to image with amateur telescopes as it can get lost in the glare of the primary star.

History

VB 10 was discovered in 1944 by the astronomer George van Biesbroeck using the 82 in (2.1 m) Otto Struve reflector telescope at the McDonald Observatory. He found it while surveying the telescopic field of view of the high-proper-motion red dwarf Gliese 752 (Wolf 1055), for companions. Wolf 1055 had been catalogued 25 years earlier by German astronomer Max Wolf using similar astrophotographic techniques. It is designated VB 10 in the 1961 publication of Van Biesbroeck's star catalog. Later, other astronomers began referring to it as Van Biesbroeck's star in honor of its discoverer. Because it is so dim and so close to its much brighter primary star, earlier astronomical surveys missed it even though its large parallax and large proper motion should have made it stand out on photographic plates taken at different times.

Characteristics

VB 10 has an extremely low luminosity with a baseline absolute magnitude of nearly 19 and an apparent magnitude of 17.3 (somewhat variable), making it very difficult to see.

Mathematical formulae for calculating apparent magnitude show that, if VB 10 occupied the place of the Sun, it would shine on Earth's sky at a magnitude of −12.87—approximately the same magnitude of that of the full moon.

Later researchers also noted that its mass, at 0.08 solar mass (M_☉), is right at the lower limit needed to create internal pressures and temperatures high enough to initiate nuclear fusion and actually be a star rather than a brown dwarf. At the time of its discovery it was the lowest-mass star known. The previous record holder for the lowest mass was Wolf 359 at 0.09 M_☉.

VB 10 is also notable by its very large proper motion, moving more than one arc second a year through the sky as seen from Earth.

Flare star

VB 10 is a variable star and is identified in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars as V1298 Aquilae. It is a UV Ceti-type variable star and is known to be subject to frequent flare events. Its dynamics were studied from the Hubble Space Telescope in the mid-1990s. Although VB 10 has a normal low surface temperature of 2600 K it was found to produce violent flares of up to 100,000 K. This came as a surprise to astronomers. It had previously been assumed that low mass red dwarfs would have insignificant or nonexistent magnetic fields, which are necessary for the production of solar flares. The dwarfs were believed to lack the radiative zone just outside the star's core that powers the dynamo of stars like our Sun. Nevertheless, the detection of solar flares indicates some as yet unknown process allows the solely convective cores of low mass stars to produce sufficient magnetic fields to power such outbursts.

Binary star

VB 10 is the secondary star of a bound binary star system. The primary is called Gliese 752, and hence VB 10 is also referred to as Gliese 752 B. The primary star is much larger and brighter. The two stars are separated by about 74 arc seconds (~434 AU).

Claims of a planetary system

In May 2009, astronomers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, announced that they had found evidence of a planet orbiting VB 10, which they designated VB 10b. The 200 in (5.1 m) Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory was used to detect evidence of this planet using the astrometry method. The new planet was claimed to have a mass 6 times that of Jupiter and an orbital period of 270 days. However, subsequent studies using Doppler spectroscopy failed to detect the radial velocity variations that would be expected if such a planet was orbiting this small star. The claimants of VB 10b note that these Doppler measurements only rule out planets more massive than 3 times the mass of Jupiter, but this limit is only half the reported best-fit mass of the planet as originally claimed. The claims for this planet thus fall into a long history of claimed astrometric extrasolar planet detections that were subsequently refuted.

By 2016, it was suspected that the asymmetric debris disk signal was mistaken for the long-period planet.

See also

• List of smallest stars
• List of stars named after people

External links

• "A movie of the proper motion of VB 10 across the sky" (.mov file / 323 KB). http://www.nasa.gov/mov/352427main_C-vb10motion200905-640.mov.