18 Delphini is the star's Flamsteed designation, abbreviated 18 Del. Following its discovery the planet was designated 18 Delphini b.[5]
As part of the NameExoWorlds program by the International Astronomical Union, in 2015 the name Musica, Latin for 'music', was selected for this star by Tokushima Prefectural Jonan High School Science Club of Japan. The planet was given the name Arion,[11] after a genius of poetry and music in ancient Greece. According to legend, his life was saved at sea by dolphins after attracting their attention by the playing of his kithara. The constellation 'Delphinus' is Latin for 'dolphin'.[12][8]
The Washington Double Star Catalogue lists a pair of visual companions for this star. Component B is magnitude 9.88 and lies at an angular separation of 197.5 arcseconds along a position angle (PA) of 162° from the brighter star as of 2003. Component C has a magnitude of 12.77 with a separation of 129.3 arcseconds as of 2000.[14] The proper motion of both stars are diverging significantly from 18 Delphini, so they can be ruled out as physical companions. However, a faint star located 29.2″ away appears to be a co-moving companion. This has a projected separation of 2,199 AU and a mass estimated as 19% that of the Sun. It is a small red dwarf star with a class of M4–5.[15]
Planetary system
On February 19, 2008, an extrasolar planet was found to be orbiting the star with a period of 2.720 years and a mild eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.08. The mass of this exoplanet is greater than 10 times the mass of Jupiter.[5]
^ abHøg, E.; et al. (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H.
^ abOpolski, A. (1957). "The spectrophotometric parallaxes of 42 visual binaries". Arkiv för Astronomi. 2: 55. Bibcode:1957ArA.....2...55O.