Star profile
51 Eridani
What is 51 Eridani
51 Eridani is an astronomical rarity: barely 96 light-years away, it harbours 51 Eri b, one of the smallest exoplanets ever directly imaged, a young hot world captured by the Gemini Planet Imager and revisited by the James Webb telescope. The star itself is a young F-type member of a stellar association around ten million years old, and has also been confirmed as a Gamma Doradus pulsator. Eridanus, the celestial river, flows long toward the south carrying this system still under construction.
Where it is and when to see it
51 Eridani lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is November, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 36° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 47° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 59° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 88° N.
It ranks no. 57 in brightness among the 129 stars of Eridanus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Achernar, the brightest: it lies about 65° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 96 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 51 Eridani
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.22
- Distance
- 96.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 69.401° · Dec -2.474°
- Catalogue
- HIP 21547 · HD 29391
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Other stars in Eridanus
Eridanus has 129 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AchernarAlpha Eridani0.45
- CursaBeta Eridani2.78
- AcamarTheta 1 Eridani2.88
- Xi Eridani5.17
- 47 Eridani5.20
- HIP 138745.22
- HIP 144565.23
- 20 Eridani5.24