SCR 1845-6357

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NASA -- larger image

SCR 1845-6357 is an extremely dim and red dwarf star,
like Gliese 623 A (M2.5V) and B (M5.8Ve) at lower right.

System Summary

This star may be located only around 11.6 (+ 1.0 / -0.9) light-years (ly) away from Sol, based on a recently estimated trigonometric parallax of 0.282 +/- 0.023 arcseconds ("). The star is located in the (18:45:2.6-63:57:52, J2000) of Constellation , the . It can be found . Like all red dwarf stars, however, SCR 1845-6357 is too faint to be seen by Humans on Earth without a telescope.

The Star

Walt Feimer, GSFC, NASA

Larger illustration.

SCR 1845-6357 is a red dwarf
star of spectral and luminosity
type M8.5 V.

SCR 1845-6357 is a main-sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type M8.5 V (Deacon et al, 2004). Such a cool red dwarf star is substantially smaller and dimmer than Sol, currently estimated to have only around seven percent of Sol's mass, around one-seventh of its diameter, and 1/?00,000th of its luminosity.

Walt Feimer, GSFC, NASA

Larger illustration.

SCR 1845-6357 may only have
around seven percent of Sol's
mass and is ?00,000 times fainter,
which is why it was not found
until 200? despite
its proximity to the Solar
System.

The star's relative distance to Sol has been revised as initial estimates of magnitude and distance indicated that the star had an unreasonably small diameter of 68 percent of Jupiter. Subsequent measurements of magnitude and metallicity suggested that the star is actually located around 11.7 ly away, based on an inferred, spectrophotometric parallax of 3.6 +/- 0.4 arcseconds (Teegarden et al, 2003) -- more discussion at RECONS. A more precise measurement of the star position to improve the determination of its trigonometric parallax distance was launched by the U.S. Naval Observatory. In June 2004, George Gatewood (Director of the Allegheny Observatory) also reported a similar, initial parallax estimate of 0.259 +/- 0.004 arcseconds (AAS 204th Meeting session summary), for a distance of 3.86 +/- 0.06 parsecs (12.6 +/- 0.2 ly), a distance modulus of 2.067+/- 0.034 magnitudes, and an absolute visual magnitude of 17.47 +/- 0.04 (A.O. abstract) -- "in excellent agreement with those of the U.S Naval Observatory (Conrad Dahn, private communications." Useful catalogue numbers for this star include: SO025300.5+165258, SO25300.5+165258, SO J025300.5+165258, and 2MASS J02530084+1652532.

Closest Neighbors

The following star systems are probably located within 10 light-years of SCR 1845-6357.

Star System	Spectra & Luminosity	Distance (light-years)
Epsilon Eridani	K2 V	~5.0
Hip 82725	?	~5.4
Gl 674 / CD-46 11540	M2.5-3 V	~5.6
CD-44 11909	M3.5-5 V	~7.2
Lacaille 8760	K7-M2 Ve	~7.2
Ross 154	M3.5 Ve	~7.5
CD-49 13515	M1 V	~7.8
L 205-128	M3.5-5 V	~7.8
Alpha Centauri AB	G2 V K0 V	~7.9
Proxima Centauri	M5.5 Ve	~8.1
Delta Pavonis	G5-8 V-IV	!8.7
L 347-14	M4.5 V	~8.7
Lacaille 9352	M V	~9.0
L 145-141	DA / VII	~9.7

Other Information

Up-to-date technical summaries on this star may become available at: NASA's ADS Abstract Service for the Astrophysics Data System; and the SIMBAD Astronomical Database mirrored from CDS, which may require an account to access.

Around 1800 BCE, the relatively dim stars of Constellation Aries, marked the coming of Spring for Humans of Earth's northern hemisphere. One myth of the Ancient Greeks associated with Aries, the Ram, involved the God Hermes who sent Aries to save the life of Prince Phrixus. The Ram carried Phrixus to a land near the Black Sea called Colchis (the capital of which was Aea) and asked to be sacrificed to the Gods and to have his Golden Fleece be given to King Aeetes. For more information about the stars and objects in this constellation, go to Christine Kronberg's Aries. For another illustration, see David Haworth's Aries.

For more information about stars including spectral and luminosity class codes, go to ChView's webpage on The Stars of the Milky Way.