18 Delphini, also known as "Musica", is a yellow giant star, located 238 light years away from Earth. An extrasolar planet was discovered orbiting around this star in 2008.
Nomenclature[]
18 Delphini is the star's Flamsteed designation. Following its discovery the planet was designated 18 Delphini b.
In July 2014 the International Astronomical Union launched a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning names were Musica for this star and Arion for its planet.
The winning names were those submitted by the Tokushima Prefectural Jonan High School Science Club of Japan. 'Musica' is Latin for 'music'. Arion was a genius of poetry and music in ancient Greece. According to legend, his life was saved at sea by dolphins after attracting their attention by the playing of his kithara.
In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. In its first bulletin of July 2016, the WGSN explicitly recognized the names of exoplanets and their host stars approved by the Executive Committee Working Group Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites, including the names of stars adopted during the 2015 NameExoWorlds campaign. This star became so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
Planetary system[]
On February 19, 2008, a 10.3 Jupiter mass extrasolar planet was found orbiting this star.
| Planet | Mass | Semimajor axis | Orbital period (days) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b/Arion | >10.3 Jupiter mass | 2.6 AU | 993.3 ± 3.2 | 0.08 ± 0.01 | N/A | N/A |