Tau Ceti [SEP] constellation
Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti, Latinized from τ Ceti, is a single star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under from the Solar System, it is a relatively nearby star and the closest solitary G-class star. The star appears stable, with little stellar variation, and is metal-deficient.
Observations have detected more than ten times as much dust surrounding Tau Ceti as is present in
-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and appears in some science fiction literature.
It can be seen with the unaided eye as a third-magnitude star. As seen from Tau Ceti, the Sun would be a third-magnitude star in the northern hemisphere constellation Boötes.
Name.
The name "Tau Ceti" is the Bayer designation for this star, established in 1603 as part of German celestial cartographer Johann Bayer's "Uranometria" star catalogue: it is "number T" in Bayer's sequence of constellation