| Observation data Epoch J2000.0 Equinox J2000.0 |
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|---|---|
| Constellation | Lepus |
| Right ascension | 05h 46m 57.341s[1] |
| Declination | −14° 49′ 19.02″ |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 3.55[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Spectral type | A2-3Vann |
| U−B color index | 0.08 |
| B−V color index | 0.10 |
| Variable type | None |
| Astrometry | |
| Radial velocity (Rv) | 20.0[2]–24.7[3] km/s |
| Proper motion (μ) | RA: -14.84 mas/yr Dec.: -1.18 mas/yr |
| Parallax (π) | 46.47 ± 0.68 mas |
| Distance | 70.2 ly (21.5 pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | 1.89 |
| Details | |
| Mass | 2[3] M☉ |
| Radius | 1.7 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 15 L☉ |
| Temperature | 9,000 K |
| Rotation | ~202 km/s. |
| Age | ~50-500×106 years |
| Other designations | |
|
14 Leporis, BD-14°1232, FK5 219, GCTP 1326, Gl 217.1, HD 38678, HIP 27288, HR 1998, SAO 150801, Wolf 9190
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| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
| ARICNS | data |
Zeta Leporis (ζ Lep, ζ Leporis) is a white main sequence star approximately 70 light-years away in the constellation of Lepus. The star is suspected of being a spectroscopic binary star system, but this is yet to be confirmed. In 2001, an asteroid belt was confirmed to orbit the star.
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Zeta Leporis is a naked eye star with an apparent magnitude of 3.5.[1] It is a white main sequence star (not to be confused with a white dwarf) of the spectral type of "A2-3Vann". The star is thought to have about two times the mass of the Sun, along with 1.7 times the radius, and 15 times the luminosity. The star appears to be a very young star, probably around 100 million years old, but could be anywhere between 50 and 500 million years old. The star was suggested to be a spectroscopic binary star. But because this secondary star was not confirmed, there is no data on the star.
In 1983, based on radiation in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite was used to identify dust orbiting this star. The region containing the dust was constricted to a radius of 12.2 Astronomical units, or just over twelve times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.[4]
By 2001, the Long Wavelength Spectrometer at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, was used more accurately to constrain the radius of the dust. It was found to lie within a 5.4 AU radius.[4] The temperature of the dust was estimated as about 340 K. Based on heating from the star, this could place the grains as close as 2.5 AU from Zeta Leporis.[4]
It is now believed that the dust is coming from a massive asteroid belt in orbit around Zeta Leporis, making it the first extra-solar asteroid belt to be discovered. The estimated mass of the belt is about 200 times the total in our own asteroid belt, or 4 × 1023 kg. (For comparison, that is more than half the total mass of our Moon.) Astronomers Christine Chen and professor Michael Jura found that the dust contained within this belt should have fallen into the star within 20,000 years, a much shorter time period than Zeta Leporis' estimated age, suggesting that some mechanism must be replenishing the belt.[4] The belt's age is estimated to be 3 × 108 years.
| Companion (in order from star) |
Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) |
Orbital period (days) |
Eccentricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asteroid belt | 2.5–6.1 AU | |||
Bobylev's calculations from 2010 suggest that this star passed as close as 1.28 parsecs (4.17 light-years) from the Sun about 861,000 years ago.[3] García-Sánchez 2001 suggested that the star passed 1.64 parsecs (5.34 light-years) from the Sun about 1 million years ago.[2]
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