268 G. Cet

Its story

268 G. Cet is a near neighbour at only 23.4 light-years: an orange K-class dwarf, cooler and longer-lived than the Sun. She belongs to Cetus, a constellation so vast that for centuries it served as the symbolic sea in which mythical Andromeda was shipwrecked. Despite her visual modesty, stars like this are the darlings of those who seek temperate planets, because their gentle light allows life without smothering it.