Hello friends! It's the Sun! Today, we will be learning about my very own solar twin! His name is Tau Ceti. He is the closest star to me! He is only 12 Light Years, or 3.5 parsecs, away!    

Tau Ceti-( tow-set-ee)

Parsecs- One parsec is equal to about 3.26 light years. That means that a particle of light given off by a star that is 1 parsec from Earth will travel for 3.26 years before you see it!

Tau Ceti is a main-sequence star, which is a star in the middle of its life! (but more on that later) It is about 80% of my size and about 5047 degrees Celsius! That is hot! Tau Ceti is about 10 million years old!  Its apparent and absolute magnitude is very dim at 5.7 and 3.4! This means that its luminosity is very dim.

Luminosity- How much light the star gives off

Absolute magnitude- if we put Tau Ceti next to a bunch of other stars, how bright it would be

Apparent magnitude- how bright it looks from Earth 

This is an H&R Diagram. It measures stars and puts them on a graph based on their brightness and temperature. On one of these graphs, Tau Ceti is right next to the sun! (makes sense since we are "twins")

Fun Facts! 

Did you know that Tau Ceti is part of a constilation called Cetu? it is a constilation of a sea monster! Pretty cool huh! 

Did you know that Tau Ceti has 8 planets, which include 4 planets similar to Earth! Does that mean there are aliens...? Tat's a big theory that some people have. 

Billions of years ago, Tau Ceti was just part of a stellar nebula, just like you see here! 

Steller Nebula- a bunch of gas and dust floating around in space but in one area 

Then it started collapsing under its weight. It then started spinning fast until it was just left with a core that is starting the nuclear fusion possess. 

Fusion- Fusion is like two little building blocks sticking together to make something bigger and stronger