Solar Analog

Basic Information

A Solar Analog is a star that is photometrically similar to our Sun. To qualify, a star needs to be:

• Within 500 degrees Kelvin of our sun's temperature - roughly 5200 to 6300 K
• Have 50% to 200% the amount on non-hydrogen, non-helium that our sun does. This in turn suggests that they'd have a similar amount of cosmic dust from which to form planets.
• No close companion. That is, if the star is part of a binary star system, it's companion is very far away and only orbit each other very slowly.

Ten Nearest Analogs:

By distance in lightyears, these are the nearest Analogs to the earth:

1. Alpha Centauri A
2. Alpha Centauri B
3. Tau Ceti
4. 40 Eridani A
5. 70 Ophiuchi A
6. Sigma Draconis
7. Eta Cassiopeiae A
8. 82 Eridani
9. Delta Pavonis
10. 107 Piscium

See Also:

• Solar-Type
• Solar Twin
• G V Star

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia

Game and Story Use

• The more similarities a star has to our own, the more we can expect that life as we know it might evolve there. Humanoid life is likely to show up at Solar Analogs and Solar Twins, and less likely to show up at stars very different from our own.
  • If that wasn't clear enough, I'm saying a Solar Analog would make a good homeworld for a humanoid species.
  • If your game is set in the near future, with mankind having explored only a negligible fraction of our galaxy, any aliens are likely to come from that list of 10 closest analog stars.