What is Luyten 726-8?
Q: What is Luyten 726-8?
A: Luyten 726-8 (UV Ceti or Gliese 65) is a binary star which is one of Earth's nearest neighbours. It is located 8.7 light years from Earth in the constellation Cetus.
Q: Who discovered Luyten 726-8?
A: The star system was discovered in 1948 by W.J Luyten in the course of compiling a catalogue of stars of high proper motion; he noted its exceptionally high proper motion of 3.37 arc seconds annually and catalogued it as Luyten 726-8.
Q: How bright are the two stars?
A: The two stars are of nearly equal brightness, with apparent magnitudes of 12.57 and 11.99 as seen from Earth.
Q: How often do they orbit one another?
A: They orbit one another every 26.5 years.
Q: What is the distance between them?
A: The distance between the two stars varies from 2.1 to 8.8 AU (astronomical units).
Q: What type variable star is UV Ceti? A: UV Ceti is a red dwarf of spectral type M6.0e and it goes through fairly extreme changes of brightness; for instance, in 1952, its brightness increased by 75 times in only 20 seconds, making it an example for similar flare stars now known as UV Ceti type variable stars
