51 Ophiuchi is a single[8] star located approximately 410[1] light years away from the Sun in the equatorial constellation of Ophiuchus, northwest of the center of the Milky Way.
[4] This object is notable for being "a rare, nearby example of a young planetary system just entering the last phase of planet formation".
As a consequence, the disk around 51 Ophiuchi requires an interferometer to resolve, in contrast to that of Beta Pictoris, which has been observed using visual spectrum imaging.
[13] Recent observations of 51 Ophiuchi made with the Keck Interferometer Nuller at the W. M. Keck Observatory show that the disk has two components: a central cloud of large particles (exozodiacal dust) surrounded by a much larger cloud of small silicate particles extending to about 1,000 astronomical units.
The dominant species in atomic numbers are hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon and iron.