Ed Asich — 용의 항성

Ed Asich, Iota Draconis, is a K2 III orange giant about 101 light-years away that became famous in 2002 as the first giant star found to host an exoplanet. The planet, Iota Dra b, has a minimum mass of 9 Jupiters and orbits in a highly eccentric 1.3-year path. The star itself is about 1.8 solar masses and 12 times the Sun's radius, making it an interesting laboratory for how planetary systems survive their host star's evolution into a giant.

Ed Asich marks the bend in Draco's tail between the main body of the dragon and its head (containing Grumium and Rastaban). It is an easy naked-eye star at magnitude 3.29. The star's rich orange color is striking in binoculars. Circumpolar from mid-northern latitudes. Best observed April through October.

The name Ed Asich derives from the Arabic "aẓ-ẓīhī," meaning "the male hyena." The exoplanet was discovered in 2002 by radial velocity measurements at McDonald Observatory — one of the first planets detected around a subgiant or giant star, not a main-sequence dwarf.