Star profile
Tau Ceti
Nearby starWhat is Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti is one of the closest Sun-like stars known, and the sixth-nearest naked-eye neighbour of our own — just 11.9 light years away. Twentieth-century astronomers chose it as a target for the first radio search for extraterrestrial civilisations, Project OZMA, in 1960. It is wrapped in a disc of dust and debris, and several planetary candidates have been proposed around it, making it one of the most closely watched solar analogues in the sky.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Ceti lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Tau Ceti
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.49
- Distance
- 11.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 26.017° · Dec -15.937°
- Catalogue
- HIP 8102 · HD 10700
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Cetus
Cetus has 111 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DiphdaBeta Ceti2.04
- MenkarAlpha Ceti2.54
- Eta Ceti3.46
- KaffaljidhmaGamma Ceti3.47
- Iota Ceti3.56
- Theta Ceti3.60
- Baten KaitosZeta Ceti3.74
- Upsilon Ceti3.99