BD-05 1123 / HR 1614 AB

The system's designation of BD-05 1123 comes from a catalogue that was originally published in 1863 by Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander (1799-1875) on the position and brightness of 324,198 stars between +90° and -2° declination that were measured over 11 years from Bonn, Germany with his assistants Eduard Schönfeld (1828-1891) and Aldalbert Krüger (1832-1896). The catalogue became famous as the Bonner Durchmusterung ("Bonn Survey") and is typically abbreviated as BD. It was later expanded and extended during the early 20th Century with the Cordoba (observed from Argentina) then the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (observed from South Africa).

This metal-rich system is also the title member of the two-billion-year-old, HR 1614 stellar moving group (Feltzing and Holmberg, 2000; Olin Jeuck Eggen, 1998 and 1992; Graeme H. Smith, 1983; and Eggen, 1978). As a relatively bright star in Earth's night sky, Star A also is catalogued as Harvard Revised (HR) 1614, a numbering system derived from the 1908 Revised Harvard Photometry catalogue of stars visible to many Humans with the naked eye. The HR system has been preserved through its successor, the Yale Bright Star Catalogue -- updated and expanded through the hard work of E. Dorrit Hoffleit and others.

BD-05 1123 A

BD-05 1123 is a main-sequence orange-red dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type K3 V. It may have around 84.5 percent of Sol's mass, 81 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 657), and 21 percent of its luminosity. The star appears to be relatively enriched in elements heavier than hydrogen ("metals") because it has 105 percent of Sol's abundance of iron (Cayrel de Strobel et al, 1991, page 282). It's chromospheric activity varies over a period of about six years (M. Petit, 1990, page 975 -- Gliese No. 183). According to the Astronomiches Rechen-Institut at Heidelberg's ARICNS, this star has a spectroscopic companion (Neill Reid, 1991, page 1431; and Olin Jeuck Eggen, 1990). Useful star catalogue numbers for BD-05 1123 A include: HR 1614, Gl 183 A, Hip 23311, HD 32147, SAO 131688, LHS 200, LTT 2412, LFT 382, and LPM 200.

BD-05 1123 B

Past radial velocity analysis suggests that giant planets of one tenth to 10 times the mass of Jupiter do not exist within 0.1 to four AUs of Star A (Cummings et al, 1999). Assuming that the spectroscopic companion B does not preclude a stable inner planetary orbit, the distance from Star A where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around only 0.457 AU -- between the orbital distances of Mercury and Venus in the Solar System. An Earth-type in such a water-zone orbit would probably would have a period of around 123 days or a third of an Earth year. As such a close distance to its host star, astronomers would have great difficulty in detecting such a small planet using present methods.