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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Only Boring Astronomers Find Gratification Knowing Mnemonics

When looking to the nearest stars as candidates for human settlement, we're looking for a star which could have a relatively earth-sized planet or moon orbiting within the "goldilocks zone", the distance at which surface water is at a liquid state. This is most likely to be a main-sequence F, G or K class star like our sun, although an M class red dwarf may harbor possibilities. A later post will discuss the particular considerations of finding a habitable world in orbit around a red dwarf star.

We're going to look, in the next few posts, at the stars out to about 12 light years from our sun. The map below shows the stars out to 15 light years, but it's a pretty good start. Must run, more to come.

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