The nearest Stars: Tau Ceti (original) (raw)

The very sunlike single star often plays a role in science fiction stories. It would be ideal for planets which could develop intelligent life.
However no planets have been discovered so far. But Earth-sized planets we can't discover anyway at this time. Indeed there is a dust disk around Tau Ceti which contains a huge amount of comets and asteroids.

Constellation: Cetus
Age: up to 10 billion years
Distance: 11.90 light-years
Spectral class: G8p
Visual magnitude: 3.50
Luminosity: 0.463 * Sun
Mass: 0.81 * Sun
Diameter: 0.823 * Sun
Radial velocity: -17 km/sec

Back: List of the nearest stars

Artist impression of a planet around Tau Ceti.
Source: PPARC, David Hardy