Wolf 629

Catalog numbers:
     Gliese (Gl) 643, Luyten Half-Second (LHS) 427, Hipparcos Input Catalog (HIC) 82809, Wolf 629
Age: probably old (around 10 000 million years)
Heavy element abundance: probably less than half of Sol
Arity: singular
Points of interest:
     Due to its closeness in apparent position, and early rough measurements of their parallaxes, this star was once believed to be gravitationally bound to the Wolf 630 system; however, given even the greatest possible error in the modern measurement of their parallaxes, Wolf 629 has to be at least one light-year away from Wolf 630 and is probably over 2 light-years away.
     Despite its velocity’s low z-component, this star is a subdwarf (luminosity class VI), indicating it probably has a low level of heavy elements (and thus would’ve come from the old population of the thick galactic disk or galactic halo).

Right Ascension and Declination: 16h55m25.41s, -8°19'19.4" (epoch 2000.0)
Distance from Sol: 21.2 light-years (6.50 parsecs)
Standard error in distance: 2.557%
Source for distance: Hipparcos
Celestial (X,Y,Z) coordinates in ly: -5.83, -20.1, -3.07
Galactic (X,Y,Z) coordinates in ly: 19.4, 3.91, 7.44
Proper motion: 1.19 arcsec/yr (222.5° from north)
Radial Velocity: -14.1 km/sec
Source for proper motion and radial velocity: Gliese
Galactic (U,V,W) velocity components in km/s: -7.78, -38.5, 0.43

What do all these fields mean?

NOTE: This star is actually a close-orbiting binary pair. The data below are for both sub-components of the pair combined.
Spectral class: M3.5
Luminosity Class: V
Apparent visual magnitude: +11.74
Absolute visual magnitude: +12.68
Visual luminosity: 0.00074 x Sol
Color indices: B-V= +1.69, U-B= +1.35, R-I= +1.21
Mass: 0.12 x Sol
Diameter: 0.3 x Sol
Comfort Zone (visual): 0.027 A.U.s
Orbital period in CZ: 4.72903 days
Tidal index in CZ: 5965.35
Angular size of star in sky in CZ: 5.880630 degrees

Data for this star system were most recently updated on 4-April-2001.