LHS 3844

LHS 3844, formally named Batsũ̀, is a red dwarf star located away from the Solar System in the constellation of Indus. The star has about 15% the mass and 19% the radius of the Sun. It is a relatively inactive red dwarf with a slow rotation period of about 128 days, though UV flares have been observed. LHS 3844 is orbited by one known exoplanet.

Nomenclature

The designation LHS 3844 comes from one of Willem [Jacob Luyten|Luyten]'s catalogues of stars with high proper motion.
In August 2022, this planetary system was included among 20 systems to be named by the third NameExoWorlds project. The approved names, proposed by a team from Costa Rica, were announced in June 2023. LHS 3844 is named Batsũ̀ and its planet is named Kuakua, after the Bribri words for "hummingbird" and "butterfly".

Planetary system

The exoplanet LHS 3844 b was discovered in 2018 using TESS. It is a terrestrial planet larger than Earth with an orbital period of less than a day, and likely does not have an atmosphere. Its low albedo suggests that its surface may resemble that of the Moon or Mercury.