Luyten 726-8 (star)

Luyten 726-8 A (BL Ceti)
Spectral	M5.5 Ve
Type	Main Sqequence
Multiple	Binary
Luminosity	0.00006 LSol
Absolute magnitude	15.40
Mag Terra	12.54
Temperature	2670° K
Mass	0.102 MSol
Radius	0.14 RSol

Luyten 726-8 B (UV Ceti)
Spectral	M6.0 Ve
Type	Main Sqequence
Multiple	Companion
Luminosity	0.00004 LSol
Absolute magnitude	15.85
Mag Terra	12.99
Temperature	~ 2650° K
Mass	0.100 MSol
Radius	0.14 RSol

The stars of the Luyten 726-8 system (otherwise known as BL Ceti and UV Ceti or Luyten's Flare Star) are a binary pair of pinkish-orange UV Ceti type variable stars of spectral type M5.5 and M6.

Description (Specifications)

BL Ceti and UV Ceti have an average separation of ~5.5AU, and orbit one another in a highly elliptical orbit (e= 0.62), the two stars having a periastron of 2.1AU and an apastron of 8.8AU, with an orbital period lasting 26.5 years.

• The habitable zone of either star of the pair lies between ~0.022AU and ~0.064AU with a corresponding orbital period of 3.6 to 13.8 days.
• Because of their low masses, the interior of each of the components of the Luyten 726-8 system is completely convective, causing energy to be transferred to the exterior by the movement of plasma rather than through radiative transport. This convection means that the helium ash left over from the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen does not accumulate at the core, but instead circulates throughout the star. Unlike Sol, which will only burn through about 10% of its total hydrogen supply before leaving the main sequence, the components of Luyten 726-8 will consume nearly all of their fuel before the fusion of hydrogen comes to an end, becoming smaller and hotter as their fuel is used up and subsequently turning into "blue dwarfs" as their ends approach. They will finally end their lives as a white dwarfs, without having passed through the red-giant phase.

The Luyten 726-8 star system lies approximately 2.7pc from Terra, and is located in a Spinrimward/Rimward direction from Terra at bearing 175.5^o Galactic Longitude and -75.7^o South Galactic Latitude.

• The nearest neighbor of the Luyten 726-8 system is Tau Ceti, which lies only 0.88 pc away within the same hexgrid.

History & Background (Dossier)

(Non-canonical): Luyten 726-8 lies in the same hexgrid as the star Tau Ceti, the primary star of the world Iilike/Sol (Solomani Rim 1429).

Image Repository

TravellerMap (T5SS):
[1]

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Luyten_726-8. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• EXTERNAL LINK: SIMBAD @ University of Strasbourg: [2]
• EXTERNAL LINK: Sol Station: [3]
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: WHULorigan
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science