HD 61005

HD 61005, also known as HIP 36948 and The Moth, is a young star located in the southern constellation Puppis, the poop deck. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.22, making it readily visible in binoculars, but not to the naked eye. The object is located relatively close at a distance of 119 light years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements but is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of $$.

Characteristics
HD 61005 has a stellar classification of G8 Vk, indicating that it is a yellow dwarf with interstellar absorption features in its spectrum. However, it is younger than the Sun at an age of 30 million years. Other studies place it an older age, ranging from 135 million years to 2 billion years. The star retains a detectable debris disk - a disk of dust created from collisions of planetesimals in a belt analogous to the Solar System's Kuiper belt. HD 61005 is located in the Local Bubble, a region with a low concentration of interstellar dust. It is suspected to be a member of the Argus association.

It has 96% the mass of the Sun and 81% of its solar radius. It radiates 61% of the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of $$, giving it a yellow hue. HD 61005 has a solar metallicity — what astronomers dub chemical elements heavier than helium; it spins modestly with a projected rotational velocity of $$.

Debris disk
In 2007, astronomer Dean C. Hines and colleagues announced the discovery of a debris disk around HD 61005. The disk has an unusual shape, which may be due to the influence of the dense regions of the interstellar medium. The researchers also suggest that the passage through these areas can affect the atmosphere of planets that form. The disc morphology resembles the shape of a moth, inspiring its informal name. Analysis of the data did not confirm the presence of planets in the system.