Gliese 588

Gliese 588 is a nearby red dwarf star of spectral type M2.5, located in the constellation Lupus at 19.30 light-years from Earth. It emits a very stable light flux, with no detectable pulsations.

History of observations

According to Luyten's , this object was discovered by Innes. In 1903–1927 Innes was the director of the Union Observatory, South Africa.
However, in the Ci 20 catalogue this star was designated as "CD -40 7021", not "UO". This may indicate that GJ 588 was first catalogued earlier, in the Cordoba Durchmusterung by John M. Thome in 1894. Note: the real CD designation of Gliese 588 is "CD-40 9712", not "CD -40 7021": GJ 588 has a RA of 15 hours, but the real CD -40 7021 has a RA of 11 hours.

Search for planets

In 2019, two planet candidates detected by radial velocity around Gliese 588 were reported in a preprint, among 118 planets around M dwarf stars. These would have minimum masses about 2.4 and 10.3 times that of Earth, and orbit with periods of 5.8 and 206 days. A 2024 study did not find evidence for planets around this star; radial velocity signals with different periods were detected and attributed to intrinsic stellar variability.