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Concept
Lalande 21185
Summary
Lalande 21185 (also known as BD+36 2147, Gliese 411, and HD 95735) is a star in the south of Ursa Major. It is the apparent brightest red dwarf in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, and being relatively close by, it is (as are all red dwarfs) very dim, being only magnitude 7.5 in visible light and thus too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. The star is visible through a small telescope or binoculars.
At approximately away it is one of the stars nearest to the Solar System; only the Alpha Centauri system, Barnard's Star, and Wolf 359 and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 and WISE 0855−0714 are known to be closer. Because of its proximity it is a frequent subject for astronomical surveys and other research and thus is known by numerous other designations, most commonly Gliese 411 and HD 95735. In approximately 19,900 years it will be at its closest, about 4.65 ly (1.43 pc) from the Sun, just over half its present distance.
Lalande 21185 has two known exoplanets and one candidate exoplanet, making it the second closest planetary system to the Solar System.
The celestial coordinates of Lalande 21185 were first published in 1801 by French astronomer Jérôme Lalande of the Paris Observatory in the star catalog Histoire céleste française. The catalog sequence numbers for majority of the observed stars, including this one, were introduced in its 1847 edition by Francis Baily. Today this star is one of just a few that are still commonly referred to by their Lalande catalog number.
In May 1857, Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander discovered the high proper motion of the star. It was sometimes called "Argelander's second star". (The "first Argelander's star" is Groombridge 1830, whose high proper motion was discovered by Argelander earlier—in 1842).
Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke is reported to have made the first measurement of the star's parallax of 0.511 arc seconds in 1857–58 and thus first identifying Lalande 21185 as the second-closest-known star to the Sun, after the Alpha Centauri system.
Official source
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