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If I look at the night sky, which easily identifiable stars have known exoplanets, and what are the names of those planets?

With the recent discovery of so many exoplanets, it is a nice idea to look at the stars with this new knowledge. They will no longer seem like a bunch of anonymous white dots.

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    $\begingroup$ First up on a Google search for "planets around naked eye stars" physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29729/… $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Dec 12, 2016 at 22:13
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    $\begingroup$ Exoplanet studies like Kepler have been statistical in nature. And the conclusion is that almost every star has exoplanets. Maybe binary stars less likely so. A space telescope mission like Cheops to be launched late 2017 to hunt exoplanets around nearby stars might confirm or change this impression. $\endgroup$
    – LocalFluff
    Dec 12, 2016 at 22:28

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Stars with an apparent magnitude of 7.0 or greater are typically not visible to the naked eye. So if you take a list of exoplanetary host stars, such as this, and you sort by apparent magnitude, in ascending order, then you will see a list of identifiable stars known to have exoplanets, until you reach an apparent magnitude of 7.0 on the list.

Finding the star can be trickier, but Wikipedia will usually show you what constellation you can find the star in. With a little work, and maybe the help of some other posts on this site, you could probably identify which stars are visible in your area and time.

Most exoplanets have not been given formal names themselves, but instead a lowercase letter is appended to the end of the name or designation of the star, for example "Beta Geminorum b (abbreviated β Geminorum b, β Gem b) and HD 62509 b" for Pollux b, the first planet discovered around Pollux. Incidentally in 2014, the International Astronomical Union did release a process for giving proper names to exoplanets, and Pollux b was given the name Thestias. If you look up other exoplanets on Wikipedia, you can find out whether they have been given proper names as well.

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