Space Facts

Astronomy:
Name Stars that are Nearby

In the software, "Stars in the NeighborHood," a user can give any nearby star any name that comes to mind. Stars like "Rigel" or "Sheliak," though, are nowhere near our sun. Yet they are two of the brighter stars in our night skies. On the other hand, some of the closest stars have catalog numbers like, "Wolf 359," "Gliese 699," and "Lalande 21185," and have failed to inspire more memorable names largely because they can only be seen with relatively powerful telescopes.

	Name	SpType	Dist. (pc)	Age GYr	Notes
	Sol	G2V	0	4.5	Our own sun. Moderately Rich
	Proxima Centauri	M5V	1.29	8.17	Very Rich.
	Alpha Centauri	G2V	1.34	8.17	Very Rich. aka Toliman, Rigel Kentaurus
	Tau Ceti	G8V	3.5	10	Very Poor.
	Sirius	A1V	2.63	0.3	aka "Dog Star," Alpha Canis Majoris
	Procyon	F5IV-V	3.5	1.7	Moderately rich.
	Epsilon Eridani	K2V	3.27	0.8	Moderately poor.
	Omicron 2 Eridani	K1V	4.83	8	Home to "Star Trek" Vulcans
	Altair	A7V	4.98	0.9	Moderely poor. aka Alpha Aquilae
	Epsilon Indi	K4.5V	3.46	1.3	Moderely poor.
	Beta Hydri	G2IV	6.44	6.7	Moderately rich.
	Eta Cassiopeiae	G3V	5.94	?	Moderately rich. aka Achird.
	Mu Cassiopeiae	G5VI	7.43	7.9	Very metal poor.
	Xi Bootis	G8V	6.71	0.9
	Vega	A0V	7.72	0.5	Very poor. aka Alpha Lyrae
	Alsafi	K0V	5.61	3.3	Poor. aka Sigma Draconis
	Delta Pavonis	G7IV-V	5.71	6	Very rich.
	Fomalhaut	A3V	6.51	0.2	Poor. aka Alpha Piscis Austrini

Some stars have multiple names to compliment their large array of catalog numbers. Alpha Centauri, as shown above for instance, is also known as "Rigel Kentaurus," and "Toliman."