Flying Saucer

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann

---

JWST images of the Flying Saucer, a protoplanetary disk. The disk is called Flying Saucer or 2MASS J16281370-2431391 (CC BY Melina Thévenot).

Flying Saucer is a modern star name adopted by the International Astronomical Union in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN). Its origin is English. It is the name of the star 2MASS J16281370-2431391 in constellation Ophiuchus.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The name occures first in the title of the research paper Pontoppidan et al (2008): "Deep Spitzer Spectroscopy of the ``Flying Saucer'' Edge-on Disk: Large Grains beyond 50 AU".

The star is classified as a young stellar object (YSO).

Abstract: "We present deep Spitzer IRS low-resolution (λ/∆λ~100) 5-35 μm spectroscopy of the edge-on disk the ``Flying Saucer'' (2MASS J16281370-2431391) in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud."

Mythology

no mythology

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was adopted by the IAU WGSN in 2026, as it has been in popular use among astrophysicists and listed in SIMBAD already.

• 
  InfoCard1
• 
  InfoCard2

Reference

• References (general)