109 Piscium


109 Piscium is a yellow hued G-type main-sequence star located about 108 light years away in the zodiac constellation of Pisces. It is near the lower limit of visibility to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 6.27. The star is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −45.5 km/s. It has one known exoplanet.
With a stellar classification of G3 Va, this is a Sun-like star with a similar mass but a 91% larger radius. It is 6.75 billion years old with a higher abundance of iron and a low projected rotational velocity of 1.3 km/s. The star is radiating 2.9 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,442 K.

Planetary system

On 1 November 1999 the discovery of an extrasolar planet orbiting this star was announced. The planet has a minimum mass of more than 6 times that of Jupiter and takes just under three years to orbit its parent star.
The star rotates at an inclination of 69 degrees relative to Earth. It is probable that this planet shares that inclination.

Popular culture

In the 1983 Star Trek novel The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane, the USS Enterprise intentionally causes 109 Piscium to go supernova by entering warp drive too close to the star, in order to destroy a group of pursuing Klingon vessels. Captain Kirk experiences an uneasy sense that he may "get in trouble with Starfleet" over this arguably rash course of action.