Gliese 588 Explained

Gliese 588 is a nearby red dwarf star of spectral type M2.5, located in the constellation Lupus at 19.34 light-years from Earth. It emits a very stable light flux, with no detectable pulsations.

History of observations

According to Luyten's (1979) (catalogue LHS, as well as NLTT), this object was discovered by Innes.^[1] In 1903–1927 Innes was the director of the Union Observatory (UO), South Africa.

However, in the Ci 20 catalogue (see number 934) this star was designated as "CD -40 7021", not "UO". This may indicate that GJ 588 was first catalogued earlier, in the Cordoba Durchmusterung by John M. Thome in 1894.^[2] Note: the real CD designation of Gliese 588 is "CD-40 9712",^[3] not "CD -40 7021": GJ 588 has a RA of 15 hours, but the real CD -40 7021 has a RA of 11 hours.^[4]

Planetary system

On 11 June 2019, two planets were detected by radial velocity around Gliese 588 among other 118 planets around M dwarf stars.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: LHS 397. LHS Catalogue, 2nd Edition. Luyten, Willem Jacob. 1979. 15 October 2015. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073051/http://webviz.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-5?-source=I/87B&LHS=397. live.
2. Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects. CD entry . SIMBAD. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg.
3. Web site: NLTT 40449. NLTT Catalogue. Luyten, Willem Jacob. 1979. 15 October 2015. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205532/http://webviz.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-5?-source=I/98A&recno=40449. live.
4. Web site: CD -40 7021. Cordoba Durchmusterung. Thome, John Macon. 1892–1932. 15 October 2015. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040348/http://webviz.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-5?-source=I/114&zone=-40&num=7021. live.
5. Barnes. J. R.. Kiraga. M.. Diaz. M.. Berdiñas. Z.. Jenkins. J. S.. Keiser. S.. Thompson. I.. Crane. J. D.. Shectman. S. A.. 2019-06-11. Frequency of planets orbiting M dwarfs in the Solar neighbourhood. astro-ph.EP. 1906.04644v1. en.