astronomy

HD 102956 b

HD 102956 b is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand HD 102956 b rather than just read about it. In short: HD 102956 b or Isagel is an extrasolar planet discovered in 2010 by a team of American astronomers led by John Johnson using Doppler spectroscopy and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. HD 102956 b is in the orbit of host star HD 102956.

Key takeaways

HD 102956 b belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect HD 102956 b to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HD 102956 b from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HD 102956 b or Isagel is an extrasolar planet discovered in 2010 by a team of American astronomers led by John Johnson using Doppler spectroscopy and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. HD 102956 b is in the orbit of host star HD 102956. The planet is at least the mass of Jupiter, orbiting every 6.5 days at a distance of 12 million km. HD 202956 b has a very circular orbit. The system is roughly 399 light-years from the Sun.

Discovery and nomenclature The name HD 102956 derives directly from the fact that the star is the 102,956th star catalogued in the Henry Draper Catalogue. The designation of b is given to the first planet orbiting a given star. The star is one of the 2.5 million brightest stars in the sky and is part of the Tycho-2 Catalogue. It is not visible to the naked eye with an apparent magnitude of 8.

NameExoWorlds In 2019 this planet was announced as part of the IAU NameExoWorlds project where it was designated as the planet that will be named by Sweden. The winning proposal was Isagel, from Nobel laureate Harry Martinson's space poem Aniara.

Host star HD 102956 (Aniara) is an orange subgiant with a mass and radius of 1.68 M☉ and 4.4 R☉, respectively. The surface temperature is about 5,054 K (4,781 °C). The star is 11.6 times brighter than the Sun. The star's age is estimated at 2.3 billion years.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HD 102956 b

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HD 102956 b claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to HD 102956 b before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about HD 102956 b ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of HD 102956 b

In research: HD 102956 b appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses HD 102956 b in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: HD 102956 b is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Exoplanets detected by radial velocity, Exoplanets discovered in 2010, Exoplanets with proper names, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HD 102956 b outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study HD 102956 b in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HD 102956 b means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain HD 102956 b out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 102956 b in simple terms?

Why does HD 102956 b matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study HD 102956 b?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on HD 102956 b.