Lacaille 8760

Lacaille 8760 is a red dwarf star in the constellation Microscopium, the microscope. Although it is slightly too faint to be seen without a telescope, this star is one of the nearest to our Sun at about 12.9 light years distance. This star was originally listed in a 1763 catalog that was published posthumously by the French Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. He observed this star in the southern sky while working from an observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.

In the past this star has been classified anywhere from spectral class K7 down to M2. In 1979 the Irish astronomer Patrick Byrne discovered that this is a flare star, and it was given the variable star designation AX Microscopii. As a flare star it is relatively quiet, only erupting on average less than once per day.

This star orbits around the galaxy in an elliptical orbit with a relatively high ellipticity of 0.23. Its closest approach to the Sun occurred about 20,000 years ago.Vorlage:Citation needed Due to its low mass (60 % of our Sun), this star has an expected lifespan of about 7×10¹⁰ years, it's 7 times more than for our own Sun.

Despite efforts by astronomers, thus far no planets have been detected in orbit around this star.

Although Lacaille 8760 is the brightest Red Dwarf star visible in the night sky, it's still too dim to be seen with the naked eye. It is also the largest and brightest red dwarf star known with 60% the mass and 66% the radius of the Sun.Vorlage:Dubious

See also

• List of nearest stars

External links

• SolStation article
• The Brightest Red Dwarf by Ken Croswell, Sky & Telescope, July 2002.