Tau Ceti
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Tau Ceti (τ Cet / τ Ceti) is a star commonly mentioned by science fiction authors since it is similar to the Sun in mass and spectral type in addition to being relatively close to us. However, Tau Ceti is a "metal-deficient" star and therefore unlikely to have rocky planets around it. It is also known as 52 Ceti, HD 10700, HR 509, BD-16°295, GCTP 365.00, LHS 146, GJ 71 and HIP 8102.
In 2004 a team of UK astronomers led by Jane Greaves discovered that Tau Ceti has more than ten times the amount of cometary and asteroidal material orbiting it than the Sun does. This was determined by measuring the disc of cold dust orbiting the star produced by collisions between such small bodies. This result puts a damper on the possibility of complex life in this system, as planets there would suffer from large impact events roughly ten times more frequently than Earth. On the bright side, this does tip the scales in favour of the star having planets.
Tau Ceti can be seen with the unaided eye as a faint star in the constellation of Cetus.
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Facts
- Parallax: 0.274 arcsec
- Spectral type: G8 V
- Radial velocity: -17 km/s
- Proper Motion: 1.922 arcsec/year
- Apparent Visual Magnitude: 3.49
- Absolute Visual Magnitude: 5.68
- Luminosity: 0.43 Solar Luminosities
- Distance: 12 light years
In fiction
Several science fiction novels are set on or around a habitable planet orbiting Tau Ceti, of which the following is a sample.
- In Isaac Asimov's Robot and Foundation novels, the planet Aurora and its two asteroidal satellites orbit Tau Ceti.
- In the film version of Barbarella, the decadent planet Sogo is in the Tau Ceti system.
- In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series this is the home star of the invading aliens known as the Race.
- In the Marathon game trilogy, Tau Ceti IV is the location of a human colony, about which the colony ship U.E.S.C. Marathon orbits.
- In the game System Shock 2, Tau Ceti V was where the starship Von Braun travelled on its maiden voyage. It also was the source of the invasion on the ship by both the AI SHODAN and the SHODAN-created lifeforms, the Annelids, which evolved into The Many.
- There is a famous ZX Spectrum game called Tau Ceti programmed by Pete Cooke.
- In Larry Niven's Known Space series, the human colony of Plateau orbited Tau Ceti.
- In Dan Simmon's Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, Tau Ceti is orbited by Tau Ceti Center, capitol of the Hegemony of Man.
- In Brian Antoine's online serial novella Tales of the Family nas Kan (http://www.nas-kan.org/stories/stories.html), a sci-fi/magic-based furry society inhabits a planet in the Tau Ceti system.
- In Ursula K. Le Guin's The dispossessed, the action takes place in a fictional double planet system orbiting Tau Ceti.
- In Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict, the warlike Jaridian species is referred to as having its main stronghold at Tau Ceti.
See also
External links
- Sol Station — Tau Ceti (http://www.solstation.com/stars/tau-ceti.htm)de:Tau Ceti