18 Scorpii is a solitary star located at a distance of some 46.1 light-years from the Sun at the northern edge of the Scorpius constellation. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.5, which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye outside of urban areas. The star is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +11.6.

Margaret Carol "Maggie" Turnbull is an American astronomer and astrobiologist. She received her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona in 2004. Turnbull is an authority on star systems which may have habitable planets, solar twins and planetary habitability. She is also an expert on the use of the coronagraph in the direct detection of exoplanets.