You Are Here: A Tourist's Guide to the Local Neighborhood (episode 4) ParallaxNick

Hello, passengers. It's been a few years in dry dock, but thanks to my main source of information suffering a cyber attack, I am now ready to head out of port once again. Please ensure you have all your belongings safely stowed for the duration of the trip. I've upgraded the spin gravity, which should end the issues with the toilets last time. This leg of the journey could be more eventful, as in the intervening few years, the makers of our map have given it a substantial revision, which included removing the rings, which means we're driving without rails. I can't complain, since those rings were completely useless to everyone on the planet except myself, but I had to take the time to map my own routes for the ring using an unlabeled print of the first edition. For any newcomers unfamiliar with the map or terminology I'm using, I highly recommend watching the first video in this series, link up there. But as a quick summation, a parsec is equal to about three and a quarter light years, AU is the distance between the earth and the sun, metallicity is the amount of material not hydrogen or helium in a star's atmosphere, whether metals or not, north is out, south is in, west is up, east is down, coreward is right, and rimward is left. For returners, one request I got was to better visualize the three-dimensional geography of this, our local region of space. That is a harder ask than you might think, as with no background to aid in perspective, one can easily get lost in the forest of stars. But this image from the website Atlas of the Universe can give some idea of the three-dimensional reality, if only for the first few parsecs. As you can see, other than Alpha Centauri, the stars are far more distant than they appear from the top down, and also, once we zoom out, the forest becomes impenetrable. At the conclusion of our last voyage, we completed our circuit of the second ring with a flyby of the four-planet system around the red dwarf Gliese 876. To reach the third ring from here, we must traverse many parsecs west, farther than we've ever traveled before, to reach this ring of red, white, and brown dwarf stars. This ring is, of course, an illusion. Vertical distance places many of these stars further from each other than they are from the Sun. The first star we meet, lying three parsecs north of the Sun, is, and I have it on decent authority that this is how you pronounce it, Furujelm 46. Ragnar Furujelm was born in 1879, in the improbable seaside resort of Oulu, on the northern Bothnian coast of Finland. The northernmost major urban area in the world, not in Russia. He was the scion of a family of Finnish nobles who, as per custom, retained Swedish names even while serving under the Tsar. Ragnar's ancestor, Johan Furujelm, was governor of Alaska when it was still part of the Russian Empire, while another relative, Anni Furujelm, became one of the first women to hold elected office in Finland, shortly after Finland became the first country in the world to allow her to do so. Ragnar himself would hold elected office in the newly formed Republic of Finland, representing the interests of its Swedish-speaking population, and unsuccessfully arguing against Finland's draconian, though understandable given the country's recent history, anti-communist laws. But we're here because he was an astronomer, and, like most of the astronomers whose names appear on this map, his life's work comprised diligently recording and logging the motions of over 4,000 stars. He died in 1944 after falling under a tram. Furujelm 46 is, in itself, fairly unremarkable. A tight binary of two relatively large red dwarfs, each between a quarter and a third the mass of the Sun, orbiting each other every 13 years. Its duplicity was first discovered by Gerard Kuiper in 1934. Slightly roomward of Furujelm and in line with the Sun, we arrive at Gliese 1245. And, heads up, you're going to hear that name a lot in the slug of the trip. If you want to know more about the ever-residuous Wilhelm Gliese, go back to the first video and skip to minute 38. Gliese 1245 is a tight binary of two red dwarfs orbiting each other at a distance of 8 AU, or between Jupiter and Saturn in our system, that are in turn orbited by a third red dwarf at a distance of 33 AU, or about the distance to Pluto. The largest of the trio, A, is just 11% the mass of the Sun, making it even smaller than Proxima Centauri. C is 10% the Sun's mass, while B is a meager 7%. Both A and B are flare stars, flaring up to three times a day, the sort of activity only seen in our Sun during the height of its 11-year sunspot cycle. Like many red dwarfs, they display starspot activity strong enough to cause variations in their light curve. Rimward again, and four parsecs north, we arrive at Gliese 625, a moderately sized red dwarf about twice the size of Proxima Centauri. Unlike many red dwarf stars, Gliese 625 displays little flare or starspot activity, and its relatively slow rotation at 78 days and low metallicity suggests it is older than the Sun. In 2017, astronomers at the Northern Hemisphere's High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, detected what may be a planet just three times the mass of the Earth orbiting Gliese 625 in just 15 days. But because its star emits just 1% the starlight of our Sun, that places the world barely on the inner edge of its hypothetical habitable zone, the point at which liquid water can exist at its surface. In the past, red dwarfs have been seen as marginal cases for habitability because their surfaces are so violent that any planets huddling close enough to be habitable would have their atmospheres blasted off by their stellar winds. But 625's relative quiescence opens the possibility that its planet just might be lucky enough to survive. Gliese 625 is moving towards us and will catch up with us in about half a million years. So one way or another, we're going to find out someday. A touch west and 8 parsecs south, we come to Gliese 880, a large-ish red dwarf, about 60% the mass and 70% the radius of the Sun. It may have a planetary companion, about 8.6 times the mass of the Earth, with an orbital period of 39 days. Too close, I'm afraid, to be habitable. West and coreward of Gliese 880, we come to this pair of brown dwarfs, which, despite appearances, are nowhere near each other. Their north-south distance totals 10 parsecs, or halfway across the sphere. The first, WISE J2209 plus 2711, is a Y-class dwarf, an object that blurs the line between failed star and rogue planet. Y-dwarfs are cold enough to have ammonia in their atmospheres and hover around the 13 Jupiter mass limit usually reserved for brown dwarfs. The second, 2MASS J1515 plus 4847, is a larger L-class brown dwarf described as normal, which likely means it resembles a red dwarf with the bulb dimmed. Coreward and 3 parsecs south, we arrive at the binary red dwarf system Gliese 623. First identified as a binary by Hubble in 1994, Gliese 623's two components are separated by about 1.9 AU, or about the distance to the asteroid belt. The larger, A, is about 20% the mass of the Sun, while the smaller, B, is about 10%, making it about the size of Proxima Centauri. West and coreward again, we arrive at another false binary, the red dwarf binaries Gliese 829 and Gliese 3991. That's to say, they are both actual binaries, but not bound to each other. Their north-south separation totals six parsecs. 829 is so boring, I can't find any information on it, but 3991 is a bit of a puzzle. According to every source I can find, it is a red dwarf and a white dwarf orbiting each other, at a distance of about a tenth of an AU, in just over two weeks. According to the updated map, but not the original version, it is a red dwarf binary. Given that even the paper supplied with the map calls it a white dwarf, I will stick to that. A is a fifth the radius of the Sun, while the white dwarf B is only the size of the Earth, despite having twice A's mass. Their orbital dance would be eye-twisting to behold. B is believed to be about six billion years old, which means A must also be older than the Sun. Coreward again, we come to another apparent binary of brown dwarfs, this time only separated by two parsecs. Y's 2056 plus 1459 is another Y-class brown dwarf of the is-it-a-planet variety. Barely the size of Jupiter and less than 20 times its mass, 2056's surface temperature is just 454 kelvins, equal to that beneath Jupiter's cloud layers. The larger of the two, two mass J19284155, is another object no one seems interested in. Eastward and six parsec south, we arrive at the far more interesting Gliese 849, a largest red dwarf, a bit less than half the mass and radius of the Sun. 849 is also moving towards us, and will arrive shortly after Gliese 625. Its relatively slow rotation, at 40 days, low solar activity, but slightly higher metallicity, suggest it is around 3 billion years old. What has knocked astronomers for six about 849, were the two nearly perfectly Jupiter-sized gas giants found orbiting it at distances of 2.3 and 4.9 AU, respectively. The inner planet, B, was the longest period planet ever found orbiting a red dwarf. C, found in 2015, was even farther out. When B was first found in 2006, it was unique in its sample of hundreds in being a large planet at such a distance from such a small star. Red dwarfs are not expected to have large protoplanetary disks, or to attract enough material to form large planets. So either 849 is a true brass ring fluke, or something else must be going on. Rimward and east of 625, we come to LSR J1835 plus 3259, a red dwarf so cool it is almost a brown dwarf, and in fact was suspected of being a brown dwarf until astronomers gave up looking for lithium in its spectrum, the defining characteristic of brown dwarfhood. In July 2015, astronomers at the Very Large Array in New Mexico detected what may be the first ever extrasolar aurora on J1835. The emissions were over a million times stronger than the aurora observed on Earth, and believed to be reddish in color. No one knows what is causing the aurora, but it may be particles from an orbiting moon-slash-planet catching in 1835's magnetic field, similar to what happens between Jupiter and its moon, Io. Further rimward, east, and 8 parsec south, we arrive at Gliese 1276, a white dwarf about a third larger than Earth, but 60% the mass of the Sun. It is estimated to be 8.5 billion years old, and the oldest white dwarf within 40 light-years of the Sun. Interestingly, most of the papers I've seen on 1276 are in the context of extraterrestrial life, not a topic you would associate with a long-dead star. But 8 billion years is a long time, long enough indeed for a new planet to form around a white dwarf from the ruins of the last. A habitable planet around Gliese 1276 would have an orbit just 70 times the diameter of the Earth, and, if the online calculator I used didn't break under the numbers, a year of just 100 minutes. A slim possibility, but a wondrous one. Coreward and 2 parsecs north, we arrive at BB Capricorni. The double letter indicates that this red dwarf binary is a variable. Observations suggest that the two stars, with masses of 27 and 15% that of the Sun respectively, orbit each other in just under two years. Just east of BB Capricorni and in line with the Sun, we reach Gliese 752, another red dwarf binary, but one with a surprisingly deep history. The larger of the two, A, is a fairly typical red dwarf of slightly less than half the mass and radius of the Sun. Like many red dwarfs, it is a B-wide Draconis variable, meaning that it is so pocked with star spots that their dimming can be seen across the gulf of space. The lesser star, B, is a remarkable creature. It is so dim that what the Sun's luminosity is to the Moon, B's is roughly to Jupiter. A habitable planet around B would have to orbit its star closer than the Moon orbits the Earth. Its size is roughly akin to Jupiter's as well, if not smaller, despite being nearly 100 times more massive. When it was discovered in 1944, it was the least massive star known. Its discovery by the Belgian-American astronomer Georges Achille Van Biesbroeck was considered such an achievement that it is sometimes known as Van Biesbroeck's star, or, for the rushed, VB10. Van Biesbroeck's university duly awarded him for that achievement by forcing him into mandatory retirement, though he continued to conduct observations for decades after, even traveling to Sudan at the age of 72 to rerun Arthur Eddington's eclipse experiment into general relativity. VB is a flare star, a fact that stumped astronomers when they discovered it back in 1995, since flares are driven by magnetic fields, and magnetic fields require active dynamos within stellar cores. While red dwarf's flaring is nothing new, flare activity in such small stars was thought impossible, since then, other ultra-cool red dwarfs, and even brown dwarfs, have been shown to flare, suggesting there is much still to learn about these oft-ignored pocket monsters. In 2018, astronomers at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain detected the presence of a planet around A. The planet is about the mass of Neptune and orbits the star at a distance comparable to Mercury, though the star's lower luminosity would make the planet's surface colder than Mars. In 2009, a similar planet was believed detected around B, though it was later refuted, and some speculated it may actually have been a debris disk. Rimward and east of LISA 752, we arrive at the bright blue A-type star Altair, which I've already made a video about. Further rimward, east, and two parsecs north, we arrive at the brown dwarf YSPA J17 4124.26 J174 is a T-class brown dwarf, meaning that it shows traces of methane in its spectrum, thus blurring the line once again between star and planet. Its surface temperature is believed to be roughly equivalent to the surface of Venus, which, while hot for a planet, is nothing compared to a star. Coreward, east, and two parsecs south of 174, we arrive at the red dwarf GLISA 4274. It's a flare star, and that's all I can find out about it. Further coreward and two parsecs south, we arrive at the far livelier system GLISA 867, a quadruple system of three red dwarfs and at least one brown dwarf, and the closest such system to the sun with a red dwarf primary. Red dwarfs, statistically at least, do not form such high-order systems as frequently as brighter stars like the sun. Just 0.03% of red dwarfs are in such systems compared to 2.2% for sun-like stars. It was initially thought that the nebulae that formed small stars weren't big enough to produce such stellar condos. But the discovery, in 2013, that GLISA 867 comprised just such a system has led some to ponder if they may be more common than we thought, and that their apparent absence may be due to sample bias. The primary stars in the system, A and B, are fairly typical red dwarfs, each a flare star of about 40 and 30% the mass of the sun, respectively, believed locked in a wide binary due to sharing proper motion. However, their motions relative to each other have changed somewhat in the 150 years since their discovery, possibly indicating that they are separate systems or that they possess a gigantic orbital period. The third in the system, C, orbits A every four or so days and is about 80% its mass. In 2013, B was also found to be a binary. orbited every 1.8 days. The companion is believed to be a brown dwarf, as its estimated mass of 60 times Jupiter's places it under the 75 Jupiter mass floor for stardom. Coreward and east again, we arrive at 70 Ophiuchi, a binary system of two large K-type stars which orbit each other every 88 years, similar in both period and distance to the planet Uranus. The stars are bright enough and their orbits quick enough that a patient backyard observer can track their changing positions over time. Despite being known since classical times, the pair do not appear to possess a proper name. The primary, A, is about 90% the sun's mass and about 60% its luminosity, while the companion, B, is about 70% the sun's mass but just 13% its luminosity. Their duplicity was discovered in 1779 by William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, who not only confirmed they were gravitationally bound, but demonstrated that the star's orbits complied with Newtonian mechanics. While Newton's universe had already been accepted following the calculated return of Halley's Comet in 1758, Herschel provided the first proof that it extended beyond the solar system. There is an odd history with 70 Ophiuchi. Despite the pair being one of the most studied binaries in history, astronomers for centuries have been convinced that their motions betray the existence of another unseen companion. This in itself is not odd, and indeed is likely true, given the prevalence of planets around stars found to date. But the claim has persisted even in the face of contradictory evidence. The first to publish a paper claiming a dark companion to 70 Ophiuchi was Captain William Jacob, a British resident in India and director of the Madras Observatory, in the 1855 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Speculations about extrasolar planets were not new. Giordano Bruno had speculated that worlds may circle other stars in the 16th century, while in the 17th, Johannes Kepler had initially speculated that Galileo's four new planets, actually the Galilean satellites, were extrasolar planets. But this was the first claim to ever be published in a scientific journal. He pondered whether his observed systematic repeating discrepancy had in fact proven Herschel wrong, and that Newtonian mechanics did in fact only apply to our solar system. But then concluded the best solution was an as yet undetected planet. That same year, Jacob wrote a treatise claiming, probably that some of the known planets are inhabited, not very impossible, that all of them are. In 1899, Thomas Jefferson Jackson Seed, one of the most despised astronomers who ever lived, reasserted that claim. Only to have it systematically debunked by his colleague, Forrest Ray Moulton, who showed that any such planet would have an unstable orbit. Seed refused to back down, claiming he had accounted for that issue. Even though, as both Moulton and the astronomical journal showed him, he clearly had not. He would go on to assert that earthquakes were caused by water interacting with lava on the ocean floor, a hypothesis that made actual geologists blink in puzzlement. And also that the seas were gradually drying up, and that the land was increasing. He even claimed that geologists were aware of this fact, and were keeping it quiet, revealing a proper 21st century mind. He was also a critic of the emerging nebular hypothesis for solar system formation, preferring the capture theory, and savaged his critics in the science letters page, claiming that quote, most of the recent speculations and cosmogony are not worth the paper they are written on. And yet some have been published by the astronomical journal. In 1912, when Moulton showed unequivocally that C had not only plagiarized him, but redrafted his charts to better conform to his own ideas, C's reputation withered among astronomers, though he was still popular with the public. He even tried to take on Albert Einstein, claiming that relativity was quote, crazy vagary, and even unironically accusing Einstein of plagiarism. It is often said that one of the reasons Pluto is named Pluto is because it was not the name Thomas C preferred. Claims of a planet in the 70 OVUKI star system emerged again in 1932 and again in 1943. Just as with planet X, as observations improved, the discrepancy slowly faded away. But that does not close the door on a planet around 70 OVUKI A. Simulations suggest it could hold a planet or even a brown dwarf in a stable orbit as far out as Jupiter. And with K-type stars being the new hot potential habitats for extrasolar life, given their much longer lifespans, perhaps Captain Jacob's intuition regarding a habitable world within the stars of 70 OVUKI will prove correct. Rimward, east, and 4 parsec south of 70 OVUKI, we arrive at LP 81660, a solitary red dwarf about a quarter the mass of the sun. Like the sun, it has an 11-year star spot cycle. East, coreward, and about 11 parsecs north, we arrive at the triple star system Gliese 569. The primary in the system, A, is a largish red dwarf about half the mass of the sun, and a flare star. Its companion, B, only discovered in 1988, was revealed itself to be a binary, either of two brown dwarfs or of a red dwarf and a brown dwarf. They have shown weak variability, possibly due to star spots. The two stars orbit both each other and A in about 2.4 years. East and 2 parsec south, we arrive at the solitary red dwarf NLTT 40406, about which I can learn absolutely nothing. Coreward, east, and 4 parsec south of that, we arrive at the mess known as Gliese 643 and Gliese 644, or, collectively, V1054 Ophiuchi. This car wreck wasn't in the original edition, and I can only assume the team must have engaged in some industrial head-scratching when the data came in. Despite their naming, they are in fact a single quintuple star system, the closest such system to Earth. The next two are Gliese 2069, at 40 light-years away, and Castor, one of the Gemini twins, at 50 light-years away. All five of Gliese 644's residents are red dwarfs, and they comprise a triple star system orbited by a larger and smaller star. Kinematics have suggested that this copse of stars may be older than the Sun, but the jostling rush of the system makes individual motions difficult to determine. Rimward, west, and 5 parsec south, we arrive at Gliese 783, a K-type orange dwarf about 65% the mass of the Sun, orbited by a red dwarf about a quarter the mass of the Sun. The two stars orbit one another at about 56 AU, or just beyond the boundary of the Kuiper Belt in our system. A's relatively quiescent surface and slow rotation suggest it is older than the Sun, at around 7 billion years. Rimward, and 3 parsec south, we arrive at the red dwarf Gliese 4248, about which I can find nothing. Eastward, colward, and in line with the Sun, we arrive at the ternary star system 36 Ophiuchi, the triple system of three orange K-type stars, the largest and brightest of which is officially named Gunibu, after the name given to the system as a whole by the Kamilaroi and Iuhalehi Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales, Australia. Gunibu is their name for the scarlet robin, a red-breasted bird native to Australasia, though, much like the American robin, not actually a robin. It is one of the few currently accepted names from southern hemisphere traditions. The main stars, A and B, are spookily similar, nearly the exact same mass, radius, 81% of the Sun, and luminosity, about a third that of the Sun. The third star, C, is slightly smaller and dimmer, and orbits the primary pair once about every 570 years. Much like 70 Ophiuchi, models suggest a Jupiter-sized planet could exist around Gunibu, out of Jupiter's orbit, while C is considered one of the most likely K-type stars to be home to habitable planets. Though, since the system is believed to be about a billion years old, if a habitable planet exists in the 36 Ophiuchi system, it is unlikely to host life more complex than bacteria. Rimward, east, and four parsecs north, we get to one of my favourite nearby systems, Gliese 581. Gliese 581 is a solitary red dwarf, about a third the mass and radius of the Sun. Its luminosity in the visible spectrum is only about 1 500th that of the Sun, but across the EM spectrum it is closer to 1.2% that of the Sun. Its metallicity, about a third that of the Sun, and rotational period, 132 days, are both similar to those of Barnard's star, and, like Barnard's star, indicate that Gliese 581 is ancient, between 7 and 10 billion years old. 581's slow rotation also makes its surface very inactive, with starspot activity within the margin of error, making it unusually hospitable for any orbiting planets, particularly for a red dwarf. One of the main arguments against habitable planets around red dwarfs is that they would have to huddle so close to their Sun that its violent winds would strip them of their atmospheres. But 581 displays little of the flare activity seen in other red dwarfs, and has likely been in its current quiescent state for as long, or longer, than our Sun has existed. Although largely forgotten today, Gliese 581 is a jewel of the early years of exoplanet discovery. Its first planet, B, was found in August 2005, less than a decade after 51 Pegasi b launched the exoplanet era. At around 16 Earth masses, B closely resembles Neptune, but at its distance from its star would experience atmospheric temperatures similar to Venus. Even for its time, Gliese 581 b was fairly unremarkable. Gas giants roasting close to their stars had gone from eldritch aberrations to humdrum years earlier. But two years later, in April 2007, the discovery of Gliese 581 c sent the media spinning. When announced, it was claimed to be the first ever planet found in the habitable zone of another star. That c was only five Earth masses, which if it were rocky, would make it about half again the size of the Earth, set the world alight with visions of alien landscapes. A rocky world would possess a gravity more than twice that of Earth, and would see the Himalayas reduced to foothills. If it were icy, its gravity would be merely half again that of the Earth, but likely drown in a global ocean hundreds of kilometers deep. Since then, other astronomers have poured cold water on the idea of c's habitability, with their analysis suggesting it is too close to its star. Even I, an eternal optimist about extrasolar life, can't get Indiana University's planet temperature calculator to push its surface below 118 Celsius, no matter how much greenhouse gas I remove. With the arrival of sexier candidates like Proxima b, Gliese 581 c's star power, as it were, has dimmed. The chance exists that another planet awaits to be found in the habitable zone of Gliese 581, but despite many exciting claims, the only one to be confirmed, e, is even closer to its star than b. That doesn't mean that Gliese 581 has not remained fascinating. In 2012, a massive circumstellar disk, analogous to our solar system's Kuiper belt, but far larger, was detected lying between 25 and 60 AU from Gliese 581. Such a monstrous formation was thought impossible around a star so small. If the distances of the star's known planets were scaled up to our own solar system, then the disk would be 338 AU from the sun, and 373 AU across. In October 2008, a message from Earth was sent to Gliese 581, which will not arrive until 2029. Here's hoping there's someone there to hear it. Just coreward of 581, yet 7 parsec south, we arrive at Gliese 784, a lone red dwarf about 60% the mass and radius of the sun. Gliese 784 is moving towards us at a fairly blistering 33 km per second, and, assuming nothing changes, will reach us in about 180,000 years. Its stellar activity level suggests it is quite young, at less than a billion years. In June 2019, a planet of about 10 Earth masses was believed detected around Gliese 784, but has yet to be confirmed. Just east and one parsec north, we arrive at Gliese 754, a lone red dwarf about the size of Proxima Centauri. Its low metallicity and slow rotation, about 132 days, suggests that, like Barnard's star in Gliese 581, it is much older than the sun. In June 2019, a planet of about 10 Earth masses was believed detected in orbit around Gliese 754, but has yet to be confirmed. Confused yet? Because I sure as hell was. East and four parsecs north, we arrive at the brown dwarf Gliese 1541-2250. This is a peculiar little sprocket. For one thing, its position has shifted markedly between editions, since, as a paper I found on it said, much of its characteristics remain, quote, unconstrained. I'll say. Its estimated age ranges from 600 million years, which is less time than animals have been on Earth, to 14 billion years, which is older than the universe itself. While its mass ranges from 31 Jupiter masses, average for a brown dwarf, to 12 Jupiter masses, which would make it a planet. This is partly because it was only discovered in 2011. What seems settled is that it is a Y-class brown dwarf, the very bottom of the stellar spectrum, with a surface temperature of just 77 Celsius, a ridiculously cold temperature, even for a brown dwarf. To get that cold takes time. It's entirely possible that in 1541, we are seeing an ancient relic from the dawn of our galaxy. Rimward and in line with the sun, we find Gliese 682, a red dwarf about a quarter the size of the sun, and if its metallicity is any indication, roughly the same age. In 2014, it was announced that two planets, one of four Earth masses and one of nine Earth masses, were found orbiting 682, with the smaller planet, B, likely in the star's habitable zone. In a curious case of Wikipedia being more cautious than the official sources, the site notes that a follow-up study in 2020 failed to confirm them, and lists both as doubtful. Meanwhile, both NASA and the map agree that those planets exist. Yeah, I suppose we'll know for certain sooner or later. Further rimward and in line, we arrive at Gliese 674, a red dwarf about a third the mass and radius of the sun. Its intermediate rotation speed, at 33 days, suggests it is younger than the sun. It has relatively low activity, though star spots and flaring have been observed on its surface. It is orbited by a 12-Earth mass, or sub-Neptune planet, once every four days, which thus likely possesses a Venus-like climate. Four parsecs north, we arrive at Gliese 555, a red dwarf about a third the mass of the sun, and a B-wide Draconis variable. Its lower metallicity and slower rotation, about 96 days, suggests it is older than the sun. In regression to the mean, the map insists it has no confirmed planets. While Wikipedia insists it has one, a 5.5-Earth mass planet with an orbital period of 36 days, possibly placing it in the habitable zone. Given that it was only announced in May 2023, this discrepancy is perhaps not surprising. A second, 9-Earth mass planet, has also been tentatively detected beyond it, but remains unconfirmed. Coreward and one parsec south, we arrive at Gliese 570, a quaternary system comprising an orange dwarf orbited by a brown dwarf, and a bound pair of red dwarfs. Like all K-type stars, A is about three quarters the mass of the sun, with about 15% its luminosity. It is about 190 AU from its orbiting binary, which completes one circuit in about 2,100 years. The two red dwarfs orbit one another every 309 days. D, the brown dwarf, orbits the trio at a distance of about 1,500 AU, and is, in all respects, an unremarkable brown dwarf, though a bit on the cooler side, at 500 Celsius. East, Coreward, and four parsecs south, we arrive at Gliese 693, which despite appearances is not actually bound to Gliese 588, but separated by two parsecs north to south. 693 is a flare star, about a quarter the mass of the sun, while 588 is about 40% of solar mass. In June 2019, two tentative planets were announced to be possibly orbiting 588, one of 2.5 Earth masses, and one of 10 Earth masses, but have yet to be confirmed. Neither would be in the star's habitable zone. Rimward of that non-binary and four parsecs south, we arrive at what I'm declaring the last stop in this leg of the journey, Delta Pavonis. Delta Pavonis resembles our sun if, in a fit of pique, it had decided to swallow Alpha Centauri whole. It is just 5% more massive than our star, but 20% larger and a quarter more luminous. Delta Pavonis is a glimpse into our own future, if we make it. It is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5 billion years older than our sun, and represents that last turn on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram before a star changes tracks and heads to the sighting of Red Giant Hood. Older stars are typically poorer in metals, in an astronomical sense, than the sun, but Delta Pavonis bucks the trend. Despite being older, it has more than double the heavier elements in its atmosphere than the sun does. This high metallicity has actually acted to slow its evolution down. Ceti have gone bonkers for Delta Pavonis. Even though, if there are intelligent beings in that system, they likely have more on their minds than talking to us. Luminaries like Maggie Turnbull and Carl Sagan apostle Jill Tarter have claimed that, thanks to its high metallicity and low surface activity, it is the best option for life around a sun-like star in the local neighborhood. They're not wrong. The average temperature on an Earth-like planet in an Earth-like orbit would be about 10 Celsius hotter than Earth, or about what it reached in the mid-Cretaceous period. In February 2023, a Saturn-like planet was believed detected in a 37-year orbit around Delta Pavonis, but has yet to be confirmed. Well, that was a drive and a half, I don't mind saying. And we're only about a third of the way through the third ring. I hope to resume this route next time I need to take a vacation.