astronomy

HD 150706

HD 150706 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 150706 rather than just read about it. In short: HD 150706 is a star with an orbiting exoplanet in the northern constellation of Ursa Minor. It is located 92 light years away from the Sun, based on parallax measurements.

Key takeaways

HD 150706 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 150706 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HD 150706 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HD 150706 is a star with an orbiting exoplanet in the northern constellation of Ursa Minor. It is located 92 light years away from the Sun, based on parallax measurements. At that distance, it is not visible to the unaided eye. However, with an apparent visual magnitude of 7.02, it is an easy target for binoculars. It is located only about 10° from the northern celestial pole so it is always visible in the northern hemisphere except for near the equator. Likewise, it is never visible in most of the southern hemisphere. The star is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −17.2 km/s. The Sun-like spectrum of HD 150706 presents as a G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G0V. It has a similar mass, radius, and metallicity as the Sun. The star is radiating 1.18 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,921 K. It displays magnetic activity in its chromosphere in the form of star spots. Age estimates are poorly bounded, ranging from 1.16 up to 5.1 billion years. Based on an infrared excess, a dusty debris disk is orbiting the star. There is a hole in the center of this disk with a radius of ~20 AU. It may be kept free of dust by a planetary system.

Exoplanet The existence of an exoplanet orbiting this star was announced at the Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets conference in 2002. The claimed planet had a minimum mass equal to the mass of Jupiter and was thought to be located in an elliptical orbit with a period of 264 days. However independent measurements of the star failed to confirm the existence of this planet. A different planet was discovered in the system in 2012; this Jupiter-twin completes one orbit in roughly 16 years. Its eccentricity and orbit is very poorly constrained. In 2023, the inclination and true mass of HD 150706 b were determined via astrometry, and its orbit was revised, finding a substantially wider but still poorly constrained orbit with a period of about 36 years.

See also HD 149143 List of extrasolar planets

References

External links

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HD 150706

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HD 150706 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 150706 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 150706 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 150706

In research: HD 150706 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 150706 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 150706 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Circumstellar disks, Durchmusterung objects, G-type main-sequence stars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HD 150706 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 150706 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HD 150706 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 150706 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HD 150706 in simple terms?

HD 150706 is a star with an orbiting exoplanet in the northern constellation of Ursa Minor. It is located 92 light years away from the Sun, based on parallax measurements.

Why does HD 150706 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 150706?

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 150706.