Star Tables


These star tables were provided by Gerald Nordley to the CONTACT group.  Their original version is HERE.

Notes on these star tables:

The stars in these tables are arranged in the classes used in the Main Sequence. Choose your star from these tables and you will have some of the numbers that you need for your solar system and your planet.

Our sun is a G2 star.  Our sun formed 4.5 billion years ago. Earth also formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and most of the life forms here have developed in the last 600 million years. So apparently it takes time for a planet to become an environment where life can begin. Therefore you need to choose a star with a long enough life time.

O Class Stars -- Very Large, Very Hot, Very Fast Burning
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime 
 
°K
        
Msun=1
  
AUs
×109 yr
O4  48000  -10.24 990000.00  980000.00  1.75×104 90.000  14.400 995.00 .002
O5  44500  -9.99 790000.00  560000.00  1.46×104 60.000  15.000 889.00 .004
O6  41000  -9.31 420000.00  238000.00  1.20×104 37.000  12.900 648.00 .005
O7  38000  -8.79 260000.00  140000.00  9350.00 30.000  11.800 510.00 .006
O8  35800  -8.33 170000.00  84500.00  6960.00 23.000  10.800 412.00 .008
O9  33000  -7.72 97000.00  62700.00  4820.00 23.300  9.560 311.00 .009
B Class Stars -- Hot and Fast Burning
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime
  °K         Msun=1   AUs ×109 yr
B0 30000 -7.04 52000.00 40800.00 3020.00 17.500 8.470 228.00 .010
B1 25400 -5.76 16000.00 18800.00 1420.00 14.200 6.560 126.00 .013
B2 22000 -4.64 5700.00 9720.00 698.00 10.900 5.220 75.50 .020
B3 18700 -3.45 1900.00 3150.00 339.00 7.600 4.170 43.60 .043
B5 15400 -2.55 830.00 1500.00 231.00 5.900 4.060 28.80 .066
B6 14000 -2.00 500.00 823.00 175.00 5.200 3.810 22.40 .075
B7 13000   -1.51 320.00  496.00  133.00 4.500  3.540 17.90 .198
B8  11900  -.89 180.00  308.00  91.90 3.800  3.170 13.40 .367
B9  10500  -.19 95.00  187.00  63.30 3.350  2.960 9.75 .475
A Class Stars -- Do Not Last Long Enough to Support Complex Life Forms
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass  Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime
  °K         Msun=1   AUs ×109 yr
A0 9520 .42 54.00 87.20 43.70 2.900 2.710 7.35 .583
A1 9230 .89 35.00 76.60 30.20 2.720 2.320 5.92 .627
A2 8970 1.21 26.00 66.10 23.10 2.540 2.120 5.10 .670
A3 8720 1.44 21.00 55.60 19.20 2.360 2.010 4.58 .713
A5 8200 1.88 14.00 34.60 13.00 2.000 1.860 3.74 .800
A7 7850 2.20 10.50 25.30 10.00 1.840 1.760 3.24 1.120 
A8  7580  2.41 8.60  20.60  8.37 1.760  1.710 2.93 1.280
Class F Stars: Some of These Might Have Life-Bearing Planets
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime
  °K         Msun=1   AUs ×109 yr
F0  7200  2.72 6.50  11.20  6.38 1.600  1.640 2.55 1.600
F2 6890 3.17 4.30 6.57 4.14 1.520 1.460 2.07 1.760
F5 6440 3.49 3.20 4.47 3.00 1.400 1.440 1.79 3.440
F8 6200 3.94 2.10 2.51 1.93 1.190 1.260 1.45 6.880
G Class Stars: Possible Suns for Planets with Life: The Sun is a G2 Star
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime
  °K         Msun=1   AUs ×109 yr
G0 6030 4.31 1.50 1.21 1.36 1.050 1.130 1.22 9.180
G2 5860 4.65 1.10 .74 .97 .998 1.020 1.05 10.100
G5 5770 5.01 .79 .63 .69 .920 .893 .89 14.000
G8 5570 5.20 .66 .51 .56 .842 .875 .81 17.900
K Class Stars: Small, Dim, Red Stars: Could Perhaps Support Life On Inner Planets
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit Lifetime
  °K         Msun=1   AUs ×109 yr
K0 5250 5.69 .42 .45 .34 .790 .786 .65 21.100
K1 5080 5.83 .37 .41 .28 .766 .788 .61 long
K2 4900 6,09 .29 .38 .21 .742 .750 .54
K3 4730 6.21 .26 .34 .18 .718 .762 .51
K4 4590 6.55 .19 .31 .12 .694 .692 .43 very
K5 4350 6.81 .15 .27 82.4×10-3 .670 .684 .39 long
K7  4060  7.25 .10 .19  42.1×10-3 .606  .641 .32
M Class Stars: Less than Half the Mass of Our Sun
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass (Mass of our sun = 1) Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit
  °K         Msun=1   AUs
M0 3850 7.53 77.00×10-3 52.00×10-3 23.0×10-3 .510 .626 .28
M1 3720 7.79 61.00×10-3 38.80×10-3 14.6×10-3 .445 .597 .25
M2 3580 8.12 45.00×10-3 27.70×10-3    8.42×10-3 .400 .553 .21
M3 3470 8.36 36.00×10-3 24.00×10-3    5.30×10-3 .350 .527 .19
M4 3370 9.05 19.00×10-3 19.40×10-3    2.26×10-3 .300 .406 .13
M5 3240 9.65 11.00×10-3 14.70×10-3    0.95×10-3 .250 .334 .11
M6 3050 10.44   5.30×10-3 10.70×10-3    0.29×10-3 .207 .262 72.8×10-3
M7 2940 10.92   3.40×10-3  7.06×10-3    0.15×10-3 .163 .226 58.3×10-3
M8 2640  12.05   1.20×10-3  2.67×10-3 29.30×10-6 .120 .166 35.0×10-3
M9 2510 13.56  0.30×10-3 0.30×10-3  1.16×10-6 .100 .092 17.0×10-3

Below: The E0 Class contains the the lowest mass Main Sequence stars.
Stars less massive than class E0 are called Brown Dwarfs.

Small, Heat-Radiating Bodies Less Than a Tenth the Mass of Our Sun
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit
  °K             AUs
E0 1800 15.74 40.00×10-6 NA 277.0×10-9 .080 .065 6.3×10-3
E1 1600 16.06 30.00×10-6 NA 4.2×10-9 .072 .072 5.5×10-3
E4 1300 16.74 16.O0×10-6 NA 1.0×10-9 .064 .079 4.0×10-3
E6 1000 17.25 10.00×10-6 NA -- .053 .106 3.7×10-3
E8 800 18.00 5.00×10-6 NA Too .040 .117 2.2×10-3

Below: MJ means Jupiter masses, each about 1/1000 the mass of the sun.
The Brown Dwarf/Jovian Transition is between E8 and J0

Astronomical Bodies Smaller than Mass of Jupiter: Radiate Heat
Class Temperature Bolometric Absolute Magnitude Bolometric Luminosity  L Zams Visual Luminosity Mass Radius Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit
   °K         Mjupiter (0.001Msun)    AUs
J0 700 18.56 3.00×10-6 NA dim MJ .118 .118 1.7×10-3
J2 600 19.31 1.50×10-6 NA to MJ .114 .114 1.2×10-3
J4 400 21.06 0.30×10-6 NA see MJ .114 .114 0.5×10-3
J7 100 27.25 1.00×10-9 NA with MJ .106 .106 Below
J8 80 29.11 0.18×10-9 NA human MJ .070 .070 surface
J9 50 32.56 7.50×10-12 NA eyes MJ .037 .037 Below
Non-
Luminous		  30  34.75 1.00×10-12  NA  -- MJ .037  .037 surface

The bottom end of the Jovian scale consists of Jupiter, Saturn Neptune and Uranus in that order, with effective temperatures from Lang, adjusted for solar heating and known radius values Jupiter is a J7.

What the Headings mean:

Class: See the page on Main Sequence

Temperature in Degrees Kelvin:

See page on Temperatures in Space. The temperature given is the surface temperature of the star.

Bolometric Absolute Magnitude:

Stellar magnitude over all wavelengths as seen from ten Parsecs 32.6 Light years).  At that distance, the sun would appear to be a 4th magnitude star (4.75 to be precise).

Stars are different sizes, and some are much brighter than others. Astronomers classify stars by brightness. This is difficult because some stars are relatively close to us, while others are very far away. This measurement tells us how bright the different stars are when viewed from the same distance (but not the same place).

Bolometric Luminosity:

A star's power output over all wavelengths (Sol = 1).  This includes light, heat, ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation, gamma rays, and so on. Many wavelengths of the energy that stars radiate cannot be detected by our senses, but only with special instruments.

Bolometric Luminosity is the total energy put out by a star spread over all wavelengths. Use it for calculating the total energy balance and average effective temperature for a planet.

This is probably best for photosynthesis as well, however, for planets with deep atmospheres around very red stars, one might want to research atmospheric absorption as a function of wavelength and see how that compares to the stars blackbody spectrum. For planets with thick atmospheres or enhanced ozone layers around stars hotter than the sun, use visual luminosity for photosynthesis, as atmospheres attenuate ultraviolet light much more than visual.

L Zams:
Zero Age luminosity; bolometric luminosity after the star's
initial contraction; this is problematical for late M stars
and below, which contract essentially forever.

Visual Luminosity:

in terms of Sol at the same distance. For hotter or cooler stars this is less than L bol, because much of those star's radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet (very hot) or infrared (warm) part of the spectrum. If one was close enough to a red dwarf that it appeared as bright as the sun, one would get about 100 times less ultraviolet intensity.

Mass (Mass of our sun = 1):

See page on Weight, Mass, and Density.

Radius:

Radii are estimated from temperature and luminosity, except for the planets at the bottom. The radius is the distance from the center of the star to its outer boundary.

Terrestrial Equivalent Orbit in AUs:

The distance to a star where one gets Earth's solar intensity (1372 W/m2). For very dim stars, tidal effects are of concern.

Lifetime in Billions of Years:

This is how long your star will burn in a stable way. Remember, you need to allow time for your life forms to develop.