Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 29, 2026

DH Tauri

DH Tauri, also known as DH Tau, is a type M star, located 140 parsecs away. It forms a binary system with DI Tauri 15″ away, and has a substellar companion, either a brown dwarf or massive exoplanet.

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Jun 29, 2026
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DH Tauri

DH Tauri and the b companion (lower left) with the Very Large Telescope
Credit: ESO VLT SPHERE; Van Holstein et al.; Processing: Meli_thev
Observation data
Epoch J2000.0      Equinox ICRS
Constellation Taurus
DI Tauri
Right ascension 04h 29m 42.472s1
Declination +26° 32′ 49.13″1
DH Tauri
Right ascension 04h 29m 41.553s2
Declination +26° 32′ 58.13″2
Apparent magnitude (V) 13.13
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage pre-main sequence4
Spectral type M0-M1Ve(T)5
Variable type T Tau5
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ) RA: 6.6032 mas/yr
Dec.: −20.8712 mas/yr
Parallax (π)7.4936±0.0255 mas2
Distance435 ± 1 ly
(133.4 ± 0.5 pc)
Details
DI Tauri
Radius1.216 R☉
Luminosity0.3576 L☉
Temperature4,0586 K
DH Tauri
Mass0.417 M☉
Radius1.267 R☉
Luminosity0.227 L☉
Temperature3,7518 K
Age3.167 Myr
Other designations
DH Tau, WDS J04297+2633B, IRAS 04267+2626, 2MASS J04294155+2632582
Database references
SIMBADdata

DH Tauri, also known as DH Tau, is a type M star, located 140 parsecs (456.619 light years) away. It forms a binary system with DI Tauri 15″ away, and has a substellar companion, either a brown dwarf or massive exoplanet.

Characteristics

DH Tauri is a type M, or red dwarf star, one of the most common types of star in the Milky Way.9 It has an apparent magnitude of 13.71 and temperature of 3,751 K. DH Tauri has a mass of 0.41 M☉ and an estimated radius of 1.26 R☉, which is unusually large for a red dwarf.

The companion DH Tauri B or b has a mass estimated to be between eight MJ and 50 MJ, making it either a super-Jupiter or brown dwarf.1011 Other sources give a mass as high as 0.03 M☉, with a bolometric luminosity of 0.01 L☉.12 The spectral type has been classified as M7.512 or M9.25.13 The companion has detected water vapor and carbon monoxide in its atmosphere and has a rotational velocity of 9.6 ± 0.7 km/s. This is between 9 and 15% of the breakup speed of DH Tau B. This low rotation is in agreement with magnetic coupling to a circumplanetary disk in the late stages of accretion, which reduces angular momentum of the companion.10 The companion, while its host star still having a protoplanetary disk, is still accreting material, being surrounded by a circumsubstellar disk (possibly a circumplanetary disk, depending on its formation history).14 It is potentially orbited by a smaller candidate companion DH Tauri Bb (possibly an exomoon) with 1 MJ, and a mass ratio with respect to the brown dwarf of one-tenth.15

The DH Tauri planetary system
Companion
(in order from star) 		Mass Semimajor axis
(AU) 		Orbital period
(days) 		Eccentricity Inclination
(°) 		Radius
b 8.4±1.1,16 11.3±2.217 MJ 234+100
−4117 		— 0.58+0.32
−0.2617 		— 2.51±0.1616 RJ
References

References

  1. Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv:2208.00211. Bibcode:2023A&A...674A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243940. S2CID 244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  2. Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv:2208.00211. Bibcode:2023A&A...674A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243940. S2CID 244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  3. Ducati, J. R. (2002). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Photometry in Johnson's 11-color system". VizieR On-line Data Catalog. 2237. Bibcode:2002yCat.2237....0D.
  4. Zhou, Yifan; Herczeg, Gregory J; Kraus, Adam L; Metchev, Stanimir; Cruz, Kelle L (2014). "Accretion onto Planetary Mass Companions of Low-mass Young Stars". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 783 (1): L17. arXiv:1401.6545. Bibcode:2014ApJ...783L..17Z. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/783/1/L17. S2CID 119255447.
  5. Samus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; et al. (2009). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S. 1: B/GCVS. Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.
  6. Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
  7. Herczeg, Gregory J.; Hillenbrand, Lynne A. (2014). "An Optical Spectroscopic Study of T Tauri Stars. I. Photospheric Properties". The Astrophysical Journal. 786 (2): 97. arXiv:1403.1675. Bibcode:2014ApJ...786...97H. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/786/2/97. S2CID 36942035.
  8. Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
  9. "Exoplanet-catalog". Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond our Solar System. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  10. Xuan, Jerry W.; Bryan, Marta L.; Knutson, Heather A.; Bowler, Brendan P.; Morley, Caroline V.; Benneke, Björn (2020-03-01). "A Rotation Rate for the Planetary-mass Companion DH Tau b". The Astronomical Journal. 159 (3): 97. arXiv:2001.01759. Bibcode:2020AJ....159...97X. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab67c4. ISSN 0004-6256.
  11. Itoh, Yoichi; Hayashi, Masahiko; Tamura, Motohide; Tsuji, Takashi; Oasa, Yumiko; Fukagawa, Misato; Hayashi, Saeko S.; Naoi, Takahiro; Ishii, Miki; Mayama, Satoshi; Morino, Jun-ichi; Yamashita, Takuya; Pyo, Tae-Soo; Nishikawa, Takayuki; Usuda, Tomonori (2005-02-20). "A Young Brown Dwarf Companion to DH Tauri". The Astrophysical Journal. 620 (2): 984–993. arXiv:astro-ph/0411177. Bibcode:2005ApJ...620..984I. doi:10.1086/427086. ISSN 0004-637X.
  12. Ward-Duong, K.; Patience, J.; Bulger, J.; Van Der Plas, G.; Ménard, F.; Pinte, C.; Jackson, A. P.; Bryden, G.; Turner, N. J.; Harvey, P.; Hales, A.; De Rosa, R. J. (2018). "The Taurus Boundary of Stellar/Substellar (TBOSS) Survey. II. Disk Masses from ALMA Continuum Observations". The Astronomical Journal. 155 (2): 54. arXiv:1712.07669. Bibcode:2018AJ....155...54W. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aaa128. S2CID 55142673.
  13. Bonnefoy, M.; Chauvin, G.; Lagrange, A. -M.; Rojo, P.; Allard, F.; Pinte, C.; Dumas, C.; Homeier, D. (2014). "A library of near-infrared integral field spectra of young M-L dwarfs". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 562: A127. arXiv:1306.3709. Bibcode:2014A&A...562A.127B. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201118270. S2CID 53064211.
  14. Van Holstein, R. G.; Stolker, T.; Jensen-Clem, R.; Ginski, C.; Milli, J.; De Boer, J.; Girard, J. H.; Wahhaj, Z.; Bohn, A. J.; Millar-Blanchaer, M. A.; Benisty, M.; Bonnefoy, M.; Chauvin, G.; Dominik, C.; Hinkley, S.; Keller, C. U.; Keppler, M.; Langlois, M.; Marino, S.; Ménard, F.; Perrot, C.; Schmidt, T. O. B.; Vigan, A.; Zurlo, A.; Snik, F. (2021). "A survey of the linear polarization of directly imaged exoplanets and brown dwarf companions with SPHERE-IRDIS. First polarimetric detections revealing disks around DH Tau B and GSC 6214-210 B". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 647: 647. arXiv:2101.04033. Bibcode:2021A&A...647A..21V. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039290. S2CID 231573543.
  15. Lazzoni, C.; et al. (20 July 2020). "The search for disks or planetary objects around directly imaged companions: A candidate around DH Tau B". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 641: A131. arXiv:2007.10097. Bibcode:2020A&A...641A.131L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201937290. S2CID 220647289.
  16. Palma-Bifani, P.; Bonnefoy, M.; Chauvin, G.; Rojo, P.; Baudoz, P.; Charnay, B.; Denis, A.; Hoch, K.; Petrus, S.; Ravet, M.; Simonnin, A.; Vigan, A. (September 2025). "The planetary-mass-limit VLT/SINFONI library: Spectral extraction and atmospheric characterization via forward modeling". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 701: A51. arXiv:2507.03562. Bibcode:2025A&A...701A..51P. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202554894. ISSN 0004-6361.
  17. Lazzoni, Cecilia; Zurlo, Alice; Desidera, Silvano; Bernardi, Andrea; Pérez, Sebastian; Mesa, Dino; Barbato, Domenico; Nogueira, Pedro Henrique; Dasgupta, Anuroop (2026-03-25). "SaNDi-SHoP: Searching for Satellites'N'Disks with a Star-Hopping Program I. Analysis of the close surroundings of DI companions". arXiv:2603.24796 [astro-ph.EP].