astronomy

HD 114386

HD 114386 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 114386 rather than just read about it. In short: HD 114386 is a star with a pair of orbiting exoplanets in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 8.73, which means it cannot be viewed with the naked eye but can be seen with a telescope or good binoculars.

Key takeaways

HD 114386 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 114386 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HD 114386 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HD 114386 is a star with a pair of orbiting exoplanets in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 8.73, which means it cannot be viewed with the naked eye but can be seen with a telescope or good binoculars. Based on parallax measurements, the system is located at a distance of 91 light-years from the Sun. It is receding with a radial velocity of 33.4 km/s. The star shows a high proper motion, traversing the celestial sphere at an angular rate of 0.318 arcsec yr−1. The spectrum of HD 114386 yields a stellar classification of K3 V, matching a K-type main-sequence star, or orange dwarf. It has 76% of the mass of the Sun and 73% of the Sun's radius. HD 114386 is a much older star than the Sun with an estimated age of roughly nine billion years. The abundance of iron in the stellar atmosphere, a measure of the star's metallicity, is nearly solar. It is rather dim compared to the Sun, radiating just 28% of the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,926 K.

Planetary system In 2004, the Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search Team announced the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting the star by the radial velocity method. The preliminary data for a second, inner, exoplanet was released in 2011; it was confirmed in 2026. The inclination and true mass of the outer planet have been determined by astrometry.

See also 47 Ursae Majoris Lists of planets

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HD 114386

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HD 114386 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 114386 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 114386 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 114386

In research: HD 114386 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 114386 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 114386 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Centaurus, Durchmusterung objects, Henry Draper Catalogue objects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HD 114386 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “HD 114386” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study HD 114386 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HD 114386 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 114386 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 114386 in simple terms?

Why does HD 114386 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 114386?

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 114386.