astronomy

HD 1461

HD 1461 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 1461 rather than just read about it. In short: HD 1461 is a star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus, near the western constellation border with Aquarius. It has the Gould designation 32 G.

Key takeaways

HD 1461 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 1461 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HD 1461 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HD 1461 is a star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus, near the western constellation border with Aquarius. It has the Gould designation 32 G. Ceti, while HD 1461 is the Henry Draper Catalogue identifier. This object has a yellow hue and is a challenge to view with the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of 6.47. The star is located at a distance of 76.3 light-years (23.4 parsecs) from the Sun based on parallax, but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −10 km/s. This object is a G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G3VFe0.5, where the suffix notation indicates a mild overabundance of iron. It is roughly two billion years old and is spinning with a projected rotational velocity of 5 km/s. This is a solar-type star with 5% greater mass compared to the Sun and 1.24 times the Sun's radius. The star is radiating 1.19 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,386 K.

Planetary system On 14 December 2009, scientists announced the discovery at least one planet orbiting around HD 1461. The planet, a super-Earth with a 5.8-day orbit was designated HD 1461 b. The data also contained evidence for additional planets with orbital periods of around 400 and 5000 days but the star showed small variations with similar periods, casting doubt on the interpretation of these signals as being caused by orbiting planets. In 2011, a paper was published on the arXiv pre-print server giving an orbital solution incorporating data from the HARPS spectrograph. This solution recovered the previously-known planet HD 1461 b, and an additional planet in a 13.5-day orbit. The 13.5-day planet HD 1461 c was confirmed in 2015. However, one 2026 study found that the radial velocity signal of HD 1461 c is likely correlated with stellar activity indicators, making its existence dubious. Other than HD 1461 b, the designations for the planets are inconsistent: in the original paper, Rivera et al. designated the 400 and 5000-day candidates as "c" and "d" respectively, whereas the Mayor et al. (2011) pre-print uses the "c" designation for the 13.5-day planet and does not mention the 400-day or 5000-day planets at all. HD 1461 b has a mass 6.44 times that of the Earth while HD 1461 c, if exists, would have a mass times 5.59 that of the Earth.

See also List of extrasolar planets List of stars in Cetus

References

External links Aladin image of HD 1461

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HD 1461

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HD 1461 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 1461 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 1461 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 1461

In research: HD 1461 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 1461 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 1461 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bright Star Catalogue objects, Cetus (constellation), Durchmusterung objects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HD 1461 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 1461 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HD 1461 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 1461 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 1461 in simple terms?

HD 1461 is a star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus, near the western constellation border with Aquarius. It has the Gould designation 32 G.

Why does HD 1461 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 1461?

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 1461.