Substellar Companion
In 1994 a substellar companion was imaged and it was confirmed in 1995. Gliese 229B is a brown dwarf orbiting the star; although it is too small to sustain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion, with a mass of 20 to 50 times that of Jupiter (0.02 to 0.05 solar masses) it is still too massive to be a planet. Gliese 229B was the first confirmed substellar-mass object. This object has a surface temperature of 950 K.
The space velocity components of this star are U = +12, V = –11 and W = –12 km/s. The orbit of this star through the Milky Way galaxy has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an orbital inclination of 0.005.
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“He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)