Delta Pavonis

Home | Stars | Habitability | Life |

NASA

Delta Pavonis is a yellow-orange star
like our Sun, Sol. (See a Digitized
Sky Survey image of Delta Pavonis
from the Nearby Stars Database.)

System Summary

This star is located about 19.9 light-years (ly) away from our Sun, Sol, near the center (20:08:43.61-66:10:55.45, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Pavo, the Peacock -- west of Beta Pavonis. Although smaller and dimmer than Sol, it is clearly visible with the naked eye. As Delta Pavonis has become one of the top 100 target stars for NASA's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), images of this star and its position relative to the Milky Way in Earth's night sky are now available from the TPF-C team.

JPL, CalTech, NASA

Larger illustration

Astronomers have identified Delta
Pavonis as a prime target for the
Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF),
now planned for launch between
2014 and 2020.

The Star

Delta Pavonis is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G5-8 V-IV. This star has about 1.1 times Sol's mass (RECONS), 1.06 times its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 695), and about 1.18 times its luminosity. The star may be 95 percent to 2.7 times as enriched as Sol with elements heavier than hydrogen ("metallicity") based on its abundance of iron (Cayrel de Strobel et al, 1991, page 306), but although probably older than Sol, its exact age is uncertain (Harmer et al, 1970; and Alexander William Rodgers, 1969). It has a New Suspected Variable designation NSV 12790 and appears to be unusually bright for its spectral type, and so may be becoming a subgiant star that is beginning to evolve off the main sequence, as it begins to fuse the increasing amounts of helium "ash" mixed with hydrogen at its core. Since Delta Pavonis is fairly similar to our Sun, many speculate whether it might contain planets that harbor life. Useful star catalogue numbers for the star include: Del Pav, HR 7665, Gl 780, Hip 99240, HD 190248, CD-66 2367, CP(D)-66 3474, SAO 254733, FK5 754, LHS 485, LTT 7946, and LFT 1520.

Hunt for Substellar Companions

The orbital distance from Delta Pavonis where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is centered around 1.09 AU -- just a little farther than Earth's orbital distance in the Solar System. At that distance from the star, such a planet would have an orbital period of about 395 days or 1.08 Earth years. Astronomers are hoping to use NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) and the ESA's Darwin planned groups of observatories to search for a rocky inner planet in the so-called "habitable zone" (HZ) around Delta Pavonis. As currently planned, the TPF will include two complementary observatory groups: a visible-light coronagraph to launch around 2014; and a "formation-flying" infrared interferometer to launch before 2020, while Darwin will launch a flotilla of three mid-infrared telescopes and a fourth communications hub beginning in 2015.

Closest Neighbors

The following star systems are located within 10 light-years of Delta Pavonis.

Star System	Spectra & Luminosity	Distance (light-years)
L 119-44	M V	5.8
L 205-128	M3.5-5 V	6.4
CD-45 13677	M0 V	7.3
CD-49 13515 / Gl 832	M1.5 V	7.4
Hip 82725	?	7.5
L 347-14	M4.5 V	7.7
Epsilon Indi	K3-5 Ve	9.2
Beta Hydri	G2 IV	9.3
CD-46 11540	M2.5-3 V	9.9
CD-44 11909	M3.5-5 V	10.0

Other Information

Up-to-date technical summaries on these stars can be found at: the Astronomiches Rechen-Institut at Heidelberg's ARICNS, the Nearby Stars Database, and the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars (RECONS) list of the 100 Nearest Star Systems. Additional information may be available at Roger Wilcox's Internet Stellar Database.

Observable only in the southern hemisphere, Constellation Pavo is located between Telescopium to the north and Octans to the south. For more information about the stars and objects in this constellation, go to Christine Kronberg's Pavo. For an illustration, see David Haworth's Pavo.

For more information about stars including spectral and luminosity class codes, go to ChView's webpage on The Stars of the Milky Way.