astronomy

Wolf 1061d

Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d rather than just read about it. In short: Wolf 1061 d is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star Wolf 1061 in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 13.8 light years from Earth. It is the third and furthest planet in order from its host star in a triple planetary system, and has an orbital period of about 218 days.

Key takeaways

Wolf 1061d belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wolf 1061d to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wolf 1061d from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wolf 1061 d is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star Wolf 1061 in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 13.8 light years from Earth. It is the third and furthest planet in order from its host star in a triple planetary system, and has an orbital period of about 218 days.

Characteristics

Mass, radius, and temperature Wolf 1061 d is a super-Earth, with a mass significantly greater than that of Earth, but less than the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. However, because it was found with the radial velocity method and does not transit, only the planet's minimum mass is known. Wolf 1061 d is at least 7.70 M🜨, close to the upper limit of the super-Earth range. If the planet is rocky, it would have a radius around 1.7 R🜨. For a more likely mixed composition of both rock and volatiles, Wolf 1061 d would be at least 2.2 R🜨. The planet is one of the coldest known super-Earths, with an equilibrium temperature calculated to be around 118 K (−155 °C; −247 °F). This is too cold for liquid water and would mean that the planet is entirely coated in ice, depending on its true composition. However, due to the planet's eccentric orbit, the temperature varies wildly from as high as 176 K (−97 °C; −143 °F) to a low of 95 K (−178.2 °C; −288.7 °F).

Orbit The orbit of Wolf 1061 d is one of the longest observed for a super-Earth in orbit around a red dwarf, as well as very eccentric. The average distance between the planet and the star is 0.470 AU, the distance between the Earth and the Sun is 1 AU. This is comparable to Mercury's semi-major axis of 0.387 AU. Unlike Mercury, Wolf 1061 d takes 217.21 days to orbit its host star, compared to Mercury's orbital period of 88 days. It also has a much higher orbital eccentricity of 0.55, nearly twice as high as that of Mercury. Wolf 1061 d swings from as close as 0.2115 AU to as far as 0.7285 AU during the course of its year.

Host star

Wolf 1061 d orbits the star Wolf 1061, which is one of the nearest stars to Earth at a distance of just under 14 light years. It is 0.294 times the radius and about 0.307 times the mass of the Sun with a temperature of 3342 K and an unknown age. For comparison, the Sun has a temperature of 5778 K and an age of 4.5 billion years. Wolf 1061 is about 1% as luminous as the Sun.

Habitability Despite the low stellar flux, the presence of additional greenhouse gases like methane or even hydrogen gas might make Wolf 1061 d marginally habitable, due to the high probability of Wolf 1061 d being a mini-Neptune combined with questionable prospects of being habitable for Earth-like life in the conventional sense makes this exoplanet a poor candidate for being “potentially habitable”. A re-analysis of the system in March 2017 showed that Wolf 1061 d is likely uninhabitable; it is too far from its star and more likely to be a mini-Neptune, with a minimum mass almost 8 times that of Earth. Even at its closest approach, Wolf 1061 d never enters the system's habitable zone.

References

External links Simulated view of the Wolf 1061 system. Video created by the University of New South Wales

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wolf 1061d

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d

In research: Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d 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: Wolf 1061d is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Exoplanet stubs, Exoplanets detected by radial velocity, Exoplanets discovered in 2015, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wolf 1061d in simple terms?

Why does Wolf 1061d 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 Wolf 1061d?

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 Wolf 1061d.